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People Are Anonymously Revealing Secrets From Their Jobs That They Aren’t Supposed To Share (30 Answers)
Most companies require their employees to agree to some level of confidentiality. Whether you work for a retail store or a powerful tech company, you probably signed paperwork prior to your first day limiting what you’re allowed to share with friends and family, on social media, and more. But as the public, we’re naturally curious about companies’ practices and what goes on behind the scenes. Lucky for us, many current and former employees are happy to satiate our curiosity.
We’ve gathered a list of some of the most eye-opening bits of insider information people have shared on Reddit, some of which are certain to change the way you view these industries. So enjoy this list, and let us know in the comments if you have any juicy secrets about your profession that you can share with us. Then if you’re looking for even more insider information from businesses, check out Bored Panda’s last publication on the same topic right here.
This post may include affiliate links.
Emergency room doctor here.
I really do want you to get better, I really want you to not die. I get spat on and cursed at and am the recipient of several stink eyes daily. If you actually show that you care about your health and listen to me or show me the slightest bit of respect I will bend over backwards to help you get better.
If I'm not sending you home with a six month supply of dilaudid it's because you are better off without it. I'm sorry you have a boxer's fracture because you punched your door, but fractures hurt and I can't take all the pain away and keep you breathing at the same time. Man up and deal with a few days of discomfort, it goes away eventually.
I ask probing questions about your sexuality and drug history and the consistency of your poop because its important. I am legally prevented from sharing this info with your boss, your wife, the police. Just tell me the truth. The guy on the other side of the curtain has a curling iron stuck up his ass, the herpes you got in high school doesn't shock me.
My paycheck is my paycheck. I don't get paid more or less because I prescribe a name brand antibiotic, or decide to do stitches instead of glue, or admit you instead of letting you leave AMA. I get paid the same if I see one patient this shift or forty, most of my decisions are based on medicine, or to decrease the chances of getting sued. This isn't true for every doctor or even every emergency doctor, but consider giving your physician the benefit of the doubt.
My GP has saved my sons life and my life, I trust her with everything.
It’s understandable for companies to desire a certain level of privacy, but this day in age, when we have unlimited access to the internet, it might be more beneficial for businesses to be transparent. Former employees have more resources than ever before to call out companies and spill secrets, especially if they are bitter about the way they left a job.
But it’s in our nature to keep secrets and to be curious about the secrets others are holding. Psychologist Michael Slepian broke down the hidden world of secrets in a piece for the American Psychological Association and revealed that there are 38 common categories of secrets people keep, “ranging from infidelity and illegal behavior to pregnancy and planned surprises for others”. “We all keep the same kinds of secrets,” he said. “About 97% of people have a secret in at least one of those categories, and the average person is currently keeping secrets in 13 of those categories.”
McGraw Hill makes practically every text book allowed in america's school. At the end of every year they throw away the tens of thousands of books for the tax write off because it's going to a recycling plant.
I am talking text book for k thru 12, college books of every type, teacher editions, and class sets of short stories and books for kids in process of learning to read. A normal text book costs a school 60 to 80 bucks a pop, but they throw enough away to educate every child in Africa.
When I worked at the recycling plant I wasn't allowed to take them because it was considered illegal to distribute them.
I truly lost all hope for the future of humanity after that. And quit my job.
There should be a penalty for disposing of them in any way if there's nothing wrong with them. Stuff like this should be treated like fast fashion.
Slepian went on to explain that, although we all do it, keeping secrets can be a burden. “It’s not how much you hide a secret that’s harmful, but how often you find yourself thinking about it,” he says. Apparently secrets that we feel shameful about are the ones we tend to dwell on the most. Slepian then makes an important distinction between shame and guilt. “Guilt is more adaptive. When you feel guilty, you can make amends or decide to do something differently next time,” he explains. “Shame is more about feeling like a bad person. It can make you feel helpless or powerless.”
Having someone to confide in can help lessen the weight of a secret, Slepian notes. The conflict of wanting to protect ourselves while simultaneously wanting the weight off our chests is what can cause inner turmoil. But according to a study Slepian conducted with online participants, “Confiding a secret predicted improved well-being, both because the participant received social support and because the act of revealing the secret seemed to minimize the amount of time the person spent thinking about it.”
Diamonds should be worth much less than people pay for them.
I don't get how they have any value at all. Someone convinced people having something shiny on their hand is a good thing and now they're going bankrupt to pay for it.
I was a deep sea diver for 10 years in the Gulf of Mexico. Huge oil spills happen and are covered up hundreds of times a year by every company. The entire industry is in on it. The bottom of the gulf is a disgusting garbage dump. Every boat dumps their trash into the gulf no one obeys the laws and the coast guard doesn't enforce s**t.
Aside from taking a load off our shoulders, sharing secrets can also strengthen our relationships. Postdoctoral researcher Sarah Ward mentions that, “Sharing secrets is often a way to build trust or closeness. Knowing which people tend to share can help to identify who is likely to build close relationships, and who might be missing opportunities to foster closeness and trust.” She went on to note that people who are particularly polite tend to be less willing to share secrets, but this can be a hindrance for them. Ward mentions that these people “might be missing out on an opportunity to get comfort or relief from other people, which could alleviate their negative emotions”.
It feels like it shouldn't be a secret, but a lot of people just don't get it. If you find yourself waiting forever to be seen in the ER, that's probably a very good thing. We get the serious stuff back there pretty dang quick.
Edit: For clarity's sake, a whole lot of pain doesn't automatically make something serious. A broken arm or something hurts like hell, but we're going to take the guy who's sweating and says his chest feels a little tight before you. Because he might be dying and you definitely aren't.
A bottle of Windex is basically 95% water 4% ammonia, and 1% blue dye / fragrance. The most expensive part of the product is the bottle.
When it comes to company secrets, they often seem to be locked up in a vault. But with social media, employees can now expose employers for keeping toxic behavior and practices behind closed doors. Throughout the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in recent years, many companies have been called out for racist practices, including Tesla and Amazon.
Earlier this year, former employees of a Tesla plant in California filed the largest racial discrimination suit the state has ever seen. The lawsuit, which is on behalf of 4,000 former employees, details a horrifying environment where Black workers were constantly called slurs, placed in a corner of the factory that was referred to as “the plantation” and repeatedly subjected to unsafe working conditions. The employees shared that after informing the company and complaining about racist treatment, their concerns were brushed under the rug.
As call center employee I can assure you that ALL of our calls are recorded not for training purposes, but to protect our own a**es.
And if you insist we will review the call but in my experience 99.99% of the time the call did not go as you remembered it.
I work in the space industry and I am happy to report that there are no tricks here, everything must work with multiple redundant systems.
Record labels and producers sometimes use 'ghost vocalists' for pop stars who really can't sing. Ghost vocalists are like singing impressionists who come into the studio and re-sing the song in the style of the popstar, but better. Often the popstars in question don't even know that their vocals have been replaced.
Oh and, for the record (no pun), terrible singers can't be fixed with autotune, it is only used to polish slightly untidy vocals. This is why ghost vocalists are used.
Marni Nixon was one of the best of these for film. The list of actresses whose singing she ghosted is impressive.
Amazon has also come under fire in recent years for fostering a culture that's less welcoming for Black employees. Recode published a piece in 2021 dissecting some of Amazon's issues to make the public more aware of what's happening within the company. Interviews with former employees and diversity managers frequently reported that Black Amazon employees are "promoted less frequently and rated more harshly than non-Black peers". In 2018, only 14.5% of Black employees received a "top-tier" rating for their work at Amazon, compared to 21.8% of white employees.
A current Amazon diversity manager even told Recode, "We struggle to bring [Black] folks in because there’s not a whole lot of desire, in my opinion, to go outside of our normal practices. And then when they do get here, it’s harder to get promoted, harder to get top-tier rated, and easier to get lowest-tier. All those things combined make it so folks don’t wanna stay. And folks will leave Amazon and go take on more senior roles elsewhere.” While that quote was followed up by Amazon spokesperson Jaci Anderson disagreeing that it was representative of the company and providing a more politically correct statement, that diversity manager's quote still speaks for at least one person's opinion.
From my former job: The US military has a tradition where you spend your entire budget by Oct (the new fiscal year) or you risk losing that portion of your budget. I've been in units that would go out and purchase $200,000 worth of useless s**t just to avoid having a budget surplus. Multiply by the number of units in the military (a s**t ton) and you have all your fraud, waste and abuse.
Patient confidentiality just means your name isn't in the story, not that your story won't get told.
I work in visual effects for large hollywood movies. We do so much digital cleanup and enhancement of practical effects, yet get no credit for how it looks. We only get s**t on when a director or studio forces us to make cartoony CG characters or un-photorealistic backgrounds. We're the only department that doesn't have a union, yet we're in charge of upwards of half the movie's budget. Life of Pi was shot mostly on green screen, yet the cinematographer got an Oscar, even though most of those shots were created later in VFX without his input
Contrary to what they might believe, increasing transparency might even be beneficial for companies. (Assuming they’re not doing anything sketchy or illegal…) Michael Weinhouse, a Forbes Councils member, reports that being upfront with clients and customers actually sets businesses up for success. It can also increase companies’ efficiency. “For example, we give our clients access to a reporting dashboard that allows them to see exactly what we’re doing for them. As a result, we don’t waste time shaping and packaging our results to look better than they actually are. Similarly, because we set realistic expectations with customers from the start, we don’t need to spend time making excuses for why we weren’t able to achieve unrealistic goals.”
Lastly, Weinhouse notes that honesty builds trust with customers. He mentions how social media and review sites make it harder for companies to conceal secrets, so they might as well own their truths. “Every company has a choice to make. Do you put on a show and hope the facts about your business don’t come out? Or do you own those facts and put them to work for both you and your customers?”
Your children tell us nearly everything about what goes on in your home.
Source: Preschool Teacher
They also tell us everything you ate, said or all the faces you made at school, and how often they see you smoking around the corner. So I guess we're even.
Casino dealers really do want the players to win. We don't work for the house. We get paid s**t hourly rates and rely on tips. Unless the player is super nice, they only tip if they win, so we really do want you to win.
Nursing homes somehow always know when they are going to be visited by the state. They have plenty of time to get their s**t together, overstaff for days. The administrators and office people will actually work on the floor that would never do otherwise. Things are great until the moment the state reps leave then you're back to being understaffed and overworked. Its a common complaint but people are absolutely not getting the care they need.
Absolutely... and I lost my sh!t when I complained at my FIL's nursing home because his depends were soaked to the point that his t-shirt and the bed was even covered in dried urine and her excuse was that he was "not assisting in his own care". He had Alzheimer's, Dementia and Stage 3 Lung Cancer, there was extremely little he could do to "assist in his own care".
Some companies, however, are notorious for concealing great amounts of information from the public, and act swiftly to punish any employees who might compromise their secrecy. Silicon Valley’s tech giants are great examples of such companies, including Facebook and Google. In a piece by the Guardian examining this topic, former employees of Google and Facebook divulged some of the frightening reactions the companies have to any hint of disloyalty.
One former Facebook employee described an interrogation he received after leaking some inside information to a journalist. There was no need for the questioning, however, because the “rat-catching team” had records of the screenshots, links he had clicked or hovered over, and access to the chats between him and the journalist even before he had started working there. “It’s horrifying how much they know,” he told the Guardian. “You go into Facebook and it has this warm, fuzzy feeling of ‘we’re changing the world’ and ‘we care about things’. But you get on their bad side and all of a sudden you are face to face with Mark Zuckerberg’s secret police.”
Juries can return a not guilty verdict even if they agree that the defendant broke the law, if they feel the law itself is unjust. This is referred to as jury nullification and judges do not want jurors to know about it, even going so far as to hold people handing out literature about it in front of courthouses in contempt of court.
Furthermore: knowing this can technically exempt you from jury duty, and telling anyone while on jury duty can land you in jail. Also, if the person who posted this an attorney in the United States, he/she can be disbarred.
I am a professional tattooist.
Many of my peers tell customers how expensive the supplies are, saying that just a basic setup to do one tattoo costs like $30-$50.
It costs more like about $3.00. Including everything I can factor into it, including rent and bills.
Needles cost less than 50 cents usually.
A big bottle of black ink lasts me 6 months or so and costs $20.
We don't charge so much because the supplies are expensive and I wish my peers would stop saying that, it's a cop-out. We charge so much because it's a difficult skill to learn and we deserve to be compensated as tradesmen.
Also the hourly rate for tattooing has hovered around $100/hr for 27 years, since 1989. Tell me one other thing that costs the same as it did in 1989.
And in 1989, the needles were far more expensive because the Chinese factories hadn't started making them yet. They cost over a dollar each in 1989.
We tattooers make less money than ever, but it isn't because of the cost of supplies.
I'm happy to pay the "expensive" price for the skills of an artist and craftsman dedicated to his craft. I mean, it's permanent.
“When you first get to Facebook you are shocked at the level of transparency. You are trusted with a lot of stuff you don’t need access to,” said the former Facebook employee. “The counterbalance to giving you this huge trusting environment is if anyone steps out of line, they’ll squash you like a bug.”
Former employees also mentioned a meeting in 2015 where Zuckerberg addressed a leak about Facebook’s new messaging assistant. “We’re going to find the leaker, and we’re going to fire them,” the CEO told employees. A week later, the mole had been caught and fired, and employees in the meeting celebrated.
Midway games at carnivals or fairs purposely let people win early on in the day. This way people carry around the prizes and advertise them for the rest of the day.
You use too much dawn dish soap. That stuff is ridiculously concentrated.
In sofa/couch commercials they use smaller actors/models to make the sofas/couches look bigger.
Employees of Facebook’s European headquarters in Dublin have also mentioned the toxic culture of paranoia that exists in their offices. One employee told the Guardian he signed a contract granting the company “the right to monitor and record his social media activities, including his personal Facebook account, as well as emails, phone calls and internet use” and agreed to “random personal searches of his belongings including bags, briefcases and car while on company premises”.
He also mentioned that security teams would leave “mouse traps” to test employee loyalty. For example, a USB key containing data would be left somewhere waiting for an employee to turn it in. If the USB was plugged into a computer, it would immediately alert security and whoever plugged it in would be escorted out of the building. Employees even mentioned they would message one another in codes for fear of being monitored constantly.
It is impossible to crawl through ventilation shafts. Professional duct worker here.
Funeral home worker for 5 years.
That casket has a huge markup and it is illegal for a funeral home to not let you source your own casket. In my area Amish make them and their prices run from reasonable to unreasonable and here's another tip - Walmart sells caskets. They are still slightly overpriced but usually better than what your director is probably selling.
Shop your casket options.
As uncomfortable as it may be, plan ahead. Unfortunately the funeral industry takes advantage of people in a time of grief. There are always affordable options, they just don’t want to show you those. Instead they sell you all kinds of upgrades no one needs because only the best for dear mom and you don’t want to feel like a cheapskate. Also, in most cases you don’t need embalming either.
I keep reading that advertising is leading people to be more woke or multicultural. Companies don’t lead; they follow. They do lots of research and know where the future markets are. I worked for a very conservative global brand. Five years before gay marriage became legal, they told us it would happen, and we needed to start targeting the LBGTQ community.
If you’re interested in a documentary exposing company secrets, you’re in luck. There are plenty available online. Netflix’s collection includes White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, Rotten (which exposes truths about the food industry), Take Your Pills, What the Health, and more. Other groundbreaking documentaries exposing corporations that can be found on other sites are Roger and Me (Michael Moore’s film following his attempt to track down the CEO of General Motors), Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, The True Cost (which examines fast fashion), and Crude (which details the 2006 class action lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador).
The groundbreaking scientific results published by the mainstream media bear little resemblance to the results published in the actual scientific article.
Reporters are not scientists. They're trying to make a relatable summary out of a relatable summary of the abstract of a scientific article.
Not sure if this is an industry practise, but a very popular online retail company in my country has no in-house web designers or any other IT staff beyond your generic networking techs. Any time their website or backend systems need work they simply advertise a permanent position and give the job of sorting out whatever they need done as a "trial" for the candidate. Once completed, they then inform them that the position is no longer available and send them on their way. They've been doing this for years.
Monday's chowder is the weekend's seafood leftovers.
Edit: To answer some questions, yes this is just one example of the overall theme in most restaurants: ZERO WASTE! Any veg trimmings, chicken trimmings, beef bones get boiled to stock. Left over entrées are usually tomorrow's open-faced lunch sammy special. Plastic containers are cut in half so everything is able to be scraped out. Second only to quality and consistency of food, zero waste is the credo to live by.
It’s hard to say if transparency between businesses and consumers will continue increasing over time, but one thing that’s certain is our never-ending curiosity about what we don’t know. Customers deserve to understand what they’re supporting though, so it’s great for people to have platforms like Reddit to share these insider secrets. Don’t forget to upvote the secrets you found most shocking, and let us know in the comments if you have any industry secrets you can share with your fellow pandas!
How f**king often bodily fluids get on food, and I mean intentionally. Wash your damn produce.
I wash everything even iceburg lettuce. Friend of mine was over and he was baffled that I was washing the lettuce. He stood by the sink mystified that I was washing water with water and didn't understand the point of washing everything that had touched it from the moment it sprouted in from the ground.
I work in a shipping company. I'm a merchant marine engineer working on mega container ships. Lot of unethical shipping companies. They dump a lot of garbage, oily sludge, waste, contaminated water, and oil out when sailing in international waters far away from the shore because it's cheaper to do that than land the waste to correct shore reception facilities. There are only a few handful of players (I can count them on my fingertips) today who are actually executing business trades, while still keeping the carbon footprint and environment as one of their core policies.
I'd love to know the names of those companies so we can catch them being good.
Printer ink cartridges are meant to signal that they're empty after a certain number of pages, even if they still have some ink left.
GODDAMMIT ALL THAT INK I WASTED
Relative of mine was a mystery shopper and did a lot of car garages. He would get sent in with a car and had to get it serviced and reported on how well it was completed/if they found all the faults/ if the customer service was up to scratch etc. The results were usually 6/10, until suddenly every garage was a 10/10 continuously. He investigated as it was a bit suspicious and found "MYS" (Mystery Shopper) written on the bottom of the car he was given. One of the garages sussed him out and wrote it there for future garages to find, and make sure they have it the best possible service.
Tl;DR: Write "MYS" (Mystery Shopper) on the bottom of your car when you get it serviced to ensure it gets the best service possible
Edit: This generally refers to large car garages such as Skoda & Seat who work on their own model cars for their customers. Going to your local mechanic round the corner, he isn't going to expect a mystery shopper anytime soon. It's more the corporate garages who hire MYSers
A lot of animal donations get binned because it can’t be used. I would say around 10% is usable. For example, open packets of dried food, old toys, bedding, and towels. Most of the time, it’s checked and then binned immediately. There’s a risk of contamination with open food. We have no way of knowing if it’s been tampered with or not. With bedding, it’s often because it’s not clean. People bring items in that have been sitting around in bags since the dawn of time, and the smell hits us as soon as the bag is opened. It should be talked about because often people have no idea about these things.
Call center here.
Just because you hear music when I put you on hold, doesn't mean I do.
I can hear every profanity you utter.
I work in payroll. The number of payroll reports I see where people are conned out of their overtime is saddening.
I had a boss once who thought because he paid biweekly he only had to pay OT if the pay period exceeded 80 hrs. Ex. I worked 75 hrs in a post period that would be straight pay even if week one was 45 hrs and week two was 30. Highlighted the part of the "all employees must know" poster that is required by law that said OT is determined weekly and not by pay period and walked him over to it. No wonder he didn't keep me on when the business moved to a new building
I don't know if it's a dirty secret as much as common sense when you think about it, but having worked in a warehouse that stores beer cans, I'd say that you should wash the top of any can you drink from, as it may have been sat on climbed on, touched by filthy hands and had mice run across it, and if nothing else was probably covered in layers of dust.
Every programmer in the world occasionally writes a very bad code that sticks with the app/program forever.
Very true - I am directly responsible for a small, obscure server application which gets used in a lot of places which, let's put it this way, was chronically under-resourced during its development. And while the organisation I work for is very good at letting me fix the bugs when I hear about them, the places which use it are often mind-numbingly awful about actually updating the software. And by "places" we're quite often talking about financial institutions. Which you have probably heard of.
The fresh chocolate chip cookie scent that can be smelled outside of the Magic Kingdom bakery is artificial. It's piped out there to draw you into the bakery.
Nurse- Don't lie to us or the doctor! We're not out to get you, make you feel bad, get you in trouble, etc. The answers you give us will directly impact the care we give you and oftentimes, if the information we're given is wrong, it can affect your outcomes.
Yes, herbal meds need to be mentioned, yes, you should tell us exactly what happened (even if it's embarrassing).
Also, the gauge of your needle likely has a lot less to do with how much I like you and a lot more to do with the particulars of why you're getting a needle inserted into you in the first place.
Edit: Just for reference, most of my experience has been in a hospital setting. I'm not advocating lying in an office setting by any means, but you are also under no obligation to fill your doctors in on every illegal substance you've ever imbibed either, unless there's a possibility it's contributing to your current issues.
Professional bbq competitor here: All those world famous, secret-recipe bbq rubs and sauces are 99% the same, and you can make bucket fulls of them yourself for 1/10th the money and never notice the difference.
So when a bbq person brags about how their rub is a family secret, it's a wheelbarrow full of brown sugar, salt, paprika, chili powder, cumin, and garlic powder, and then a teaspoon here and there of something like cayenne or long peppercorns or something else you probably couldn't identify in a test if your life depended on it.
In healthcare, the average patient or family member would be terrified to know what a sh**show everything is behind the scenes. You think it's bad the doctors are always late? In the past, I had to drive across town with medical supplies because an operation is in progress, patient sedated and opened on the table, and they realize there is something they need and forgot to check for before cutting open a human being. This is one of the higher-ranked organizations in the world.
I work in lingerie and ladies, there's a 70% chance you're wearing the wrong bra size if you haven't been measured in the last 3-6 months. With any weight gain or lose your breast are the first thing to fluctuate in size. Also, don't argue after a bra fitting saying "I am NOT that size!" Yes, you are. I do this for a living. Please trust that I know how to do my job.
So, I recently went to an actual bra shop/boutique. It was a game-changer to get an exact fit and the lady knew just by looking at me what would work for my girls. I'm from US, but my bras are from Germany! They cost a bit more, but I cannot believe that I waited this long for this. No more tugging, pulling.....it's incredible.
99.9% of the guys/girls that you see in ads selling workout supplements don't actually take that c**p and are high dosing anabolic steroids.
That and doctors in commercials, they should not be allowed to use actors, only real professionals with their real names.
Grocery store bakeries do not bake the cakes they decorate. That stuff comes in frozen. I can't bake you a carrot cake. *
On top of that most of the baking in grocery store bakeries is just pulling frozen pastries or muffins or whatever out of a box and panning it up, then putting it in the proofer /oven. We don't really make things anymore.
*edited for politeness
Yeah, working as a baker in Kroger, the closest I actually got to...making something instead of just panning up and topping baked stuff was the pepperoni rolls. Those use the defrosted dough for the Italian bread, cut into pieces, flattened out, and then rolled up with pepperoni, optional cheese.
That if everyone being charged with a crime insisted on it going to trial, no plea bargaining, the system would crash.
I think that's a very American thing because the penitentiary system is profit making they have a vested interest in long sentences. You're kinda emotionally blackmailed to chose between an horrendous option and a f**king awful, TRULY horrendous option. So you take the lessor of the two horrendous options and forgo a jury based trial, and still end up with a perversely poor outcome, but it's saved the state money.
Nearly every caller you hear on top 40 radio is either an intern or someone else close to the studio, everything is fake. Especially that war of the roses s**t.
Google is still there.
If you type something into Google, and then you click a link provided to you by Google, you're not leaving Google. You're still in, they're still tracking you- they're registering how long you're on the site, where you go on the site, if you're buying anything *(and all the details of what and how)*, etc.
They provide this information to their customers if it benefits Google in their business talks.
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You can probably use 50% less shampoo and toothpaste than you use. Your hair doesn't need to be a palace of bubbles, and you're not supposed to have a glacier sliding off you're tongue when you're done.
Customer service text chat can see what you're typing in the box before you hit send.
I really did not need to know that whoever I'm talking to can see me repeatedly rewriting every response in case I accidentally offend or confuse them. (Anxiety sucks.)
The popcorn bag is worth probably about 10x the cost of the entire vat of popcorn.
Can confirm. When you get movie theater popcorn, you're essentially just paying for the container. I worked at a movie theater and management didn't care how much popcorn we were popping, but those buckets and bags were meticulously counted and tracked because they were actually worth money lol
Customer service also have mute buttons, and they use it to laugh at you and/or call you names while you're busy complaining.
I work at Kohls, we raise prices on items with white tickets 3 weeks before a sale.
911 operator here. Most of our technology is dangerously outdated. We got our current radio system in 1997.
And it's not just our center, any 911 center you go to will have software and equipment that should have been replaced years ago. Check out this map of text-to-911 coverage. It's scary. Only about 80% of our cell phone calls provide a usable location, and even that can be off by hundreds of feet.
Most states add a 911 service fee of about $1 onto your monthly phone bill. That money is supposed to go to the 911 center exclusively, and provide funding for equipment and software upgrades. But there have been widespread cases of those funds being diverted elsewhere. We don't get much from tax revenue, either. We're a footnote on the budget, and our technology reflects that.
Bonus note: If you call 911 for a medical call, it might seem like a game of 20 questions. Rest assured that help is almost always dispatched as soon as we have the address, any other questions we ask are to determine a priority and update the units en route.
Your radios aren't outdated just because they are from 1997. Narrowband FM in the 150-157MHz (or 460-ish MHz) has been the standard communications means for fire/police/ems dispatch since the 1950s, and will remain standard for decades to come. The equipment hasn't changed.
When a movie trailer has shots that turn out to be "missing" from the actual movie, that's not because scenes were cut. Those shots never existed in the movie. The trailer didn't test as well as they wanted, so the studio inserted scenes specifically made for the trailer during "additional photography."
Then there are the trailers who contain the only good parts of a movie. So disappointing when that happens.
Nothing Bundt Cakes is not made with natural ingredients or fresh everyday. They can be kept frozen for a few weeks and our eggs come out of a giant bag, premixed. You do not even want to know how much red 40 dye goes into that damn red velvet cake.
All red velvet cake contains food coloring. Otherwise, it would be brown velvet cake.
I attended a songwriting workshop at berklee school of music, and Anna Wise (Grammy winning songwriter, Kendrick Lamar collaborator) told the audience during a presentation that whenever someone "magically" blows up on soundcloud or YouTube, that it's not authentic. A label will sign the artist in secret, and then suddenly boost their viewership tremendously to make it look like the independent artist did it on their own.
Screenwriter here. If you're established and well connected, it's very easy to coast and be a TV writer for YEARS and do very little actual writing. Most of TV writing is just talking in a room with other writers spitballing. This is why there's so many old, unfunny dudes still 'writing' on TV shows. They're hired by their friends, and in TV, a lot writers don't actually do much 'pen-to-paper' writing. Plus, everything gets rewritten to death.
This is why I am down to watching 1.5 to 2.0 hours of TV a week. And for the oddly curious out there, that's "The Good Doctor," "Young Sheldon," and maybe the odd sitcom rerun.
There is no minimum rest required for aircraft maintenance. My record is 46 hours on the clock for an engine change. Could have stretched it out, but went home to shower and sleep instead of sleeping in the shop/plane/truck.
There IS HOWEVER a maximum hour count for aircraft engines for in-flight time before inspection/service. So there's at least that.
People die in hotel rooms all the time, and unless it’s public record, they’re going to clean and resell the room. That day, if possible. So better check the closet and under the bed.
Of course they are going to clean and resell the room. What should they do? What do you expect to find in the closet and under the bed? Weapons? Poison? Should they burn down the hotel and build a new one? And what about hospitals?
When you climb into a helicopter and the rotors are turning, you can't reach your arm up high enough to lose a hand....but we don't want anyone trying to test it or prove us wrong.
I mean... people have lost limbs to rotors... so.... maybe not every helicopter, but some present danger!
I work in the print industry. We print checks for companies, and there is so little security involved in hiring, keeping the materials secure, running the actual work, and shipping the work to customers. I'm shocked we haven't had a problem with stolen checks.
Don't hang up on telemarketers. If the dialer program they use works like mine, that just puts your number back into the database. If you don't want to be called again, just say so. We're required by law to comply.
Yeahhhh, but they don't comply. We used to do that, but kept getting calls from the same spammers anyway. Now we have fun messing with them instead. Using my third-grade teacher voice from a previous life, I even got one to apologize for calling.
Former Dunkin' employee here.
We don't check the survey codes at the bottom of your receipt. Any random 5 digits in the space, you've got a free donut with purchase.
I'm a visa agent. I’ve seen people be refused because the manager didn’t like their face.
Always appeal. Always follow up as well, even if they tell you it’s not necessary. Always get the name of the people you speak with and keep a log with notes. Americans - no you do not have the strongest passport and will not just be ‘waived through’ even for other similar western countries.
Any restaurant food menu items that you can't customize means that it's pre-made. Servers are typically told to say they are "made fresh daily."
Used to work at Claires, I will never buy earrings from them anymore without first cleaning them like crazy because employees use them during the day for their outfit and don't clean them before putting them back. We are also told to superglue any product back together before damaging it out to try and sell it still and lastly, every camera is fake unless it is manned by a mall camera operator because Claires does not have a security camera operation to watch anything going on in their stores.
I work in IT. Most of, if not all of the solutions to tech issues you run into can be found on Google, but we are really good at phrasing the search though, to get right to an answer quickly.
Fast food workers don't wash their hands as often as they should and rarely call in sick even if they are sick.
I cooked at Crapplebee's for a short while saving money to move out of state. They microwave pretty much 80% of the menu. And the food is a small step above burger king in quality.
Summer camp director. No one on staff is ever 100% sure what’s going on, there’s a 70% chance we think your kid is an as***le, and losing kids for 15-60 minutes at a time is a little more common than we’d like admit.
Ask to have the late fee waived. I literally cannot do anything with it until you specifically ask.
"So you have a late fee of $30 on this."
"Gee that's a lot. Why is it so much?"
"That's the late fee we have. I do apologize for that inconvenience."
"Well I guess I'll have to pay it then..."
"Ok, so your bill is $150."
"Do you realize how much that is?"
"Yes, and I do apologize for the inconvenience."
"Well, can you do something about it?"
Yes. Now I can because you asked. Please stop making me feel guilty that you paid your bill late.
Edit: since so many are asking, I work in insurance for business owners. I'm sorry I'm not the cell phone/ bank / mortgage/ hospital/ etc company. If it makes y'all feel better, I'd waive all of your late fees!
Pro tip: If you have underpaid for a silly reason and are a long-standing customer, get to a manager immediately. Have them pull up you history. If it was simple finger-trouble on a payment, ensure you pay the balance immediately (you meant to pay the full amount, right?), Then overpay by about 5% over the next 3 months. DO NOT NEGOTIATE TO PAY THE LATE FEE. SHUT THEM DOWN. This wipes out your transgression on the computer because it works out you CAN PAY MORE. Next time they offer you a credit increase, demand a better interest rate, someone *might* call you back to do so.
A lot of people probably know that when a tv show goes into syndication that some scenes will be cut from episodes to make them slightly shorter, to fit in more commercials.
What people don't know is that the show can be slightly sped up as well, to squeeze in just a little more advertising.
Stopped watching TV a long time ago, because of advertising. Tried Netflix for some time, returned to reading a book.
Merlin Entertainments, the company that runs a wide variety of midway attractions like Legoland Discovery Centers as well as Legoland itself, pays most of their American employees less than Walmart. Oftentimes, employees love the job, but ultimately can't afford to keep it. This causes a near 90% turnover rate.
When you rent a vehicle to go one-way. You will most likely be getting a car that's either high mileage, has a weird smell/stain, or possible mechanical issue.
The branch has to pay to fix the car so it's usually easier to pass the buck
Make sure you do a thorough inspection before leaving the lot.
And don't fall for the extra charge because its a one way and "we will be short a vehicle" nonsense. Had that while renting a Uhaul. The local depot was going to charge a few hundred extra for a cross country trip. I had to call the main office about something and mentioned it and they were "What?!"
If you get involuntarily bumped from a flight you can get paid out 200-400% of the flight's cost back depending on how late you get to your destination.
If this happens to you they'll offer you a bunch of vouchers, but be persistent and they'll pay you out.
* If the airline arranges substitute transportation that is scheduled to arrive at your destination between one and two hours after your original arrival time (between one and four hours on international flights), the airline must pay you an amount equal to 200% of your one-way fare to your final destination that day, with a $650 maximum.
* If the substitute transportation is scheduled to get you to your destination more than two hours later (four hours internationally), or if the airline does not make any substitute travel arrangements for you, the compensation doubles (400% of your one-way fare, $1300 maximum).
EDIT: When a flight is overbooked they come over the PA and start handing out a few hundred dollar vouchers and put you on the next flight, if you take one of these vouchers you have voluntarily given up your seat. If no one takes them the first round, they keep on going up in voucher amounts, but eventually if no one takes them they're going to have to involuntarily bump people off the plane. If this happens to you make sure you follow above rules.
Personally in my experience I had a SWA flight from Phoenix to Chicago on 12/23 at 10am. They came over the PA offering a $300 voucher and a spot on the next flight. I had nothing special to do except hang out with family so I took it and they put me on the 12pm flight. 30min before boarding that flight the same thing happens, well I'll take another $300 and they put me on the 3pm flight. Guess what? It happens again but this time they gave me $500, and I'm on the 6pm flight. And you guessed it, they ask for volunteers again and I got another $500 and now I'm on the 8pm flight. So I spent a day in the airport and sampled all the great dining options at Sky Harbor and ended up with $1600 in SWA credits to use over the next year. Was able to go on 3 trips with my girlfriend with out paying for flights! Moving forward if I ever travel before Thanksgiving or Christmas I'm booking the earlier flight and racking up the vouchers.
EDIT 2: If your flight is cancelled due to weather or mechanical issues you are SOL except them getting you on the next available flight. Flights are frequently canceled when there isn't enough seats sold and most of the time the airlines say it was a mechanical problem so they don't have to give you anything.
This doesn't explain why airlines will change literally everything about your flights AFTER you've paid for them. They'll change departure and arrival times, add layovers (sometimes several hours long), etc. This should be illegal. I paid for one product and you're providing me with an inferior product.
Former Goodwill employee, they throw 85% of the stuff you donate into the trash. They also care more about production numbers and money then you think.
This is why I stopped donating anything to Goodwill. Instead, I go to the local St. Vincent de Paul charity shop. A survey of charities rated them "exceptional" because the donations actually go to people in need.
The chances of you surviving cardiac arrest are only between 5-10% with the proper application of life saving measures. People seem to be under the assumption that most people come back ... They don't.
The chance of you surviving a heart attack, however, are between 90% and 97% (with the proper application of life-saving measures).
I used to work at a college, and everyone thinks that textbook prices are determined by the college, but they are not. They are determined by the publisher, and we have no say in it. We weren’t allowed to tell this to the students, and I have no idea why.
Our printing department printed your t-shirts wrong, and right now they're filling in the missing ink spots with Sharpies.
I work for a web design / development agency in Canada. Clients think they pay us to do the work.
The reality:
* We charge anywhere from $5,000 to $200,000+ for web projects
* We take 90% of those projects and outsource them to India for $200
* The projects come back built so poorly, we spend months fixing them
* The CEO laughs to the bank
I don't agree with the process, but that's why I quit and start a new job next week.
Doesn't that still mean that you do all the work, if you have to spend months to fix a poorly built project? It sounds like it's just being made to be more work than it initially could have been.
There are almost no winners in sports betting. Those prices and the sports book are put together by highly educated mathematicians in such a way as to always turn a profit. Anyone who "wins big" has 99% of the time invested far more than their big win over their gambling history.
Anyone who does win is extensively investigated for how they might have inside knowledge and these people are stopped from betting.
Anyone who is just stupidly lucky and wins a few times, even if we can't find confirmation that they're connected to the industry/event is also barred from betting in the future.
Turn a profit in betting and the bookie doesn't want your business, cya.
edit: All the reddit "experts" below disagreeing. Thanks for your input but I work at one of Europe's biggest sports betting companies and the above is absolutely true. Anyone consistently beating us is simply restricted on how much they can bet, and eventually told to leave entirely. And to clarify, I was referring specifically to online betting against a bookmaker. Anyone can walk into a shop with a fake moustache and be a long term winner (although that's still not likely). Obviously betting against another person (peer to peer) can be lucrative, thanks captain obvious.
Sports betting, online or at vegas, always makes the house money. The house always wins.
I'm only supposed to put six olives on your Footlong.
You all deserve to know.
That you can take a gallon of paint and give it a different label, price point, and warranty depending on the store it is sold in.
The cheap paint is cheap (obv) and doesn't give great coverage) The 'trade' paint is a little more expensive and provides good coverage. The really expensive paint isn't as good as the 'trade' paint and you're being charged for the name only. This was recently tested and the results shown on TV in my country..
Companies have quarterly targets. Including shops.
So if you're buying - for example - a fancy watch, go in at the very end of the quarter and lowball them. If they haven't hit target for that quarter then they're often likely to cut you a deal. Something they probably won't do at the start of the quarter.
If they've hit target, just wait.
Oh, you're like the guy in the friendzone, waiting for your crush to break with her bf.
Hospitals and doctors office bills in the U.S. can be negotiated, and many will offer huge cash discounts if you pay at the time of service. But once the insurance gets billed, there is much less room for negotiation. If your bill gets applied to the insurance deductible, then the facility, by law, is supposed to collect the full amount that was applied to the deductible from you. Also, if there's a co-pay, the facility, by law, is supposed to collect that as well.
For the average person on a high deductible plan ($1000+), you'd have to get cancer, or be in a huge trauma for the insurance to kick in any meaningful payment.
Insider advice: when you make an appointment at a doctors office, ask if they have a "point of service" discount. Also, if you go to a hospital, don't let them know you have insurance until after they give you the bill. Do the negotiation first, then do the math and see if it's cheaper to pay out of pocket. If not, the facility has 6 months to bill your insurance after the date of service.
Edit: this whole thing doesn't work for providers that strictly see in-network patients, i.e. HMO's.
Ever done an online insurance quote? That's just a slightly watered down version of what your insurance agent is working with. Seriously. We just put in the info and the computer spits out a price. Unless coverage or rating information changes, the price you get is what you get.
20-30 years ago, an agent could tell you how much different rating factors impacted the price, etc. Today's agents aren't privy to any of that information.
TL;DR: Insurance agents don't just pull a price out of their asses and hope you'll take it. The computer does that for us.
If you have a Bank of America credit or debit card, and your card gets declined and you call and find out it was because of a data breach, the fraud department that you speak to is forced by the bank to tell you that they can't see where or when the data breach occurred, but we *can* see it. It shows us right there on our computer. It's really f*****g annoying for everyone involved, other than the bank apparently since they're the ones that enforce this. It's a major problem because your card gets completely shut off right there over the phone, and we have to send in a request to have a completely new card and card number sent to you. Then, you wait about two weeks to receive it in the mail, and have to change everything you pay your bills on to the new card number. But if you go back to the store with that new card that had the data breach and they still haven't resolved the problem with the breach, then your card will be shut off again. Rinse and repeat. Please try not to get too angry at the people you talk to on the phone, they don't work at BoA, they're just lowly call center workers, and they're fired if tell you where it happened. The bank is saving their own a*s to not p**s off big companies that don't want that info to leak to the public.
RVs are horribly built for the money they cost. Material is cheap, but looks good. They're not cleaned as well as you'd want (behind cabinets where you wouldn't readily see it unless you took the cabinet out), and repairs done to the units are usually done as quickly as possible.
That David Walliams doesn't write his books, he uses a ghost writer and doesn't declare it.
I'm in radio. We don't get to pick what we play on air, the pd schedules it and we just talk in between songs. The closest we get is when we play a request, that's usually something we wanted to hear and no one actually requested it.
The guys down at the talk station ironically can play whatever they want but think the last good song came out in 1975.
A lot of times, when you request modifications to your food in a restaurant, the cooks are often making fun of you or becoming irrationally angry.
A good proportion of ambulance protocols are not supported by evidence based practice, and the industry is slow to adopt new evidence.
Good studies in prehospital care are expensive, long and often really hard to justify ethically. Using adrenaline in cardiac arrest is a good example. There have been a few recent studies that show that adrenaline is not effective at improving survival to hospital rates, and in some cases decreases survive to discharge rates. These studies are controversial because essentially all services give adrenaline in all arrests and to do a randomised double blind trial, some patients would have to be given a placebo. Which is super sketchy ethically when you are assessing a life saving drug that might work, but might not.
State run services aren't great at adopting new guidelines and private ones are even worse. And in my experience, it is a problem in most 1st world countries.
Most MMA fighters get on very well, and only lob insults at one another to promote fights, with a few exceptions that genuinely hate each other.
This ones pretty obvious, but Raising Canes Chicken fingers Canes Sauce is just ketchup, mayo, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, and maybe some garlic powder. They claim it to be a super secret recipe that only the managers know, but if you work there you see the managers make it in the back in a tub all the time.
Panera Bread soup isn't made in the restaurant. It's brought in in flash frozen bags. And they reuse the leftovers from the night before .
I mean... it's fast food. I don't really expect them to be chopping carrots and roasting chickens in the kitchen.
My sister was on The Biggest Loser. Jillian and Bob were there two maybe three days a week. They make it seem like they live there.
At Subway my manager never once bought real mayonnaise. The Light Mayo and the Real Mayo are both Light Mayo. Investigate those f*****s.
Your health insurance company, whether it be private or through the government knows everything about you. There’s a code for everything- your current condition, your habits, past addictions, family and personal health history, STDs, sexual preference (if it’s ever been discussed in a drs office), and much more. Your doctor’s staff encode all the details of your visit onto claim forms which get submitted to your insurance. Insurance (again private or government) can also request your medical records. Insurance can then data mine the data to determine what your risks are in an effort to try to keep you healthy. I.E. they know you have diabetes and live alone so you may need tips on healthy eating. They know you have high blood pressure but also an alcohol problem, so they need to make sure your pharmacy claims indicate you're taking your meds and also recommend rehab programs. Etc etc and on and on. This is why a health insurance data breach is a BIG DEAL.
At Whole Foods, they made us bake off more bread so the shelves looked full two hours before closing. The rich snobs can't be allowed to think they're getting the bottom of the barrel at 8pm on a Tuesday. And then once everyone was out of the store... they made us throw. it. all. away. every. night. Gallons upon gallons of soup thrown away every night, too. Whole Foods is joke, and anyone who shops there deserves to get their money taken from them. The bakery is filled with the exact same product as a regular grocery store bakery, you're just being charged to cover the cost of all the food that's thrown away at the end of the day. It's gross.
Why don't they give it to a homeless or domestic violence shelter? So much needless waste.
Load More Replies...
I worked as a fly fishing guide for years and it’s a very hard skill that takes years of practice. The number of people that think watching A River runs through it makes them an expert was frustrating. If you didn’t catch a fish with me you’re not listening.
When Bank of America forecloses on a home, they require the agents who sell the properties to send them a picture of the house keys. That means BOA has a way to copy the keys of every home they foreclosed on and had someone sell. Change your locks if you bought a foreclosed house! Change your locks anyways because realty companies probably have copies of your keys too.
If you post your gofundme to a company facebook page, it'll be deleted as spam so don't bother.
Your health insurance company, whether it be private or through the government knows everything about you. There’s a code for everything- your current condition, your habits, past addictions, family and personal health history, STDs, sexual preference (if it’s ever been discussed in a drs office), and much more. Your doctor’s staff encode all the details of your visit onto claim forms which get submitted to your insurance. Insurance (again private or government) can also request your medical records. Insurance can then data mine the data to determine what your risks are in an effort to try to keep you healthy. I.E. they know you have diabetes and live alone so you may need tips on healthy eating. They know you have high blood pressure but also an alcohol problem, so they need to make sure your pharmacy claims indicate you're taking your meds and also recommend rehab programs. Etc etc and on and on. This is why a health insurance data breach is a BIG DEAL.
At Whole Foods, they made us bake off more bread so the shelves looked full two hours before closing. The rich snobs can't be allowed to think they're getting the bottom of the barrel at 8pm on a Tuesday. And then once everyone was out of the store... they made us throw. it. all. away. every. night. Gallons upon gallons of soup thrown away every night, too. Whole Foods is joke, and anyone who shops there deserves to get their money taken from them. The bakery is filled with the exact same product as a regular grocery store bakery, you're just being charged to cover the cost of all the food that's thrown away at the end of the day. It's gross.
Why don't they give it to a homeless or domestic violence shelter? So much needless waste.
Load More Replies... I worked as a fly fishing guide for years and it’s a very hard skill that takes years of practice. The number of people that think watching A River runs through it makes them an expert was frustrating. If you didn’t catch a fish with me you’re not listening.
When Bank of America forecloses on a home, they require the agents who sell the properties to send them a picture of the house keys. That means BOA has a way to copy the keys of every home they foreclosed on and had someone sell. Change your locks if you bought a foreclosed house! Change your locks anyways because realty companies probably have copies of your keys too.
If you post your gofundme to a company facebook page, it'll be deleted as spam so don't bother.
