35 Secrets From Various Industries That Companies Don’t Want Their Customers To Know
Almost every job will entail having access to some confidential information. Whether you see details about the company’s financial history or you know about the CEO’s next project long before she publicizes it, you’re probably keeping some secrets.
But if you haven’t signed an NDA or you stopped working in that sector years ago, it might be time to reveal these juicy secrets to the public. Redditors have been spilling the beans about information that is often kept under wraps in various industries, so we’ve gathered their most fascinating replies down below. From tips that might help you save money to information that may inspire you to boycott certain companies, enjoy scrolling through these insider secrets. And be sure to upvote the ones that you’d like everyone to know!
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The government is not intelligent enough nor quick or clever enough to pull off any of the vast conspiracies attributed to it. Get real folks. I am surprised some times it functions half as well as it does.
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's razor.
I'm an aircraft mechanic. Seriously people, getting mad because of a short delay due to mechanical failure or because we have to run an additional system test is dumb. Shouting or swearing at us if we are on the plane and working on something doesn't help either. These are complicated electrical systems in a device that throws you thru the air. Wouldn't you wait 15 minutes to know that everything is okay?
To me this is common sense, but to some people I guess not.. I work in retail and the nicer you are to me the nicer I will be to you. Aka if you're super nice, funny, etc. I will go out of my way to help you out and get what you need. If you're an a*s towards me I will get rid of you as soon as possible.
The employees are not "hiding", not "avoiding to help you", not "ignoring" you. Seriously. When we say we're understaffed, we really are understaffed in some positions that are tearing someone from a different department to another department, while trying to meet the standards and daily goals for their team. Please be patient when we have to check something or find a superior. Not all of us are cashiers and may not have authority to work the tills. If you are in too much of a hurry to wait and decide to leave, by all means. We understand and are not bothered. Come back when you have actual free time. When we say it's "store policy", we mean it's corporate policy made by corporate decision makers. That ain't anyone present in the stores.
It's not a 'secret' in IT, but the chances are that your obscure computer problem really will be resolved by restarting your computer, and we're not just saying that to get you off the phone.
It's due to the unique way that computers work, moving data around memory, running multiple tasks at once often results in unusual behaviour that goes away when the computer is reset, and the volatile memory is wiped.
Telling us that you have rebooted your machine, when actually you haven't, just wastes your time and ours.
I know people that never shut down their laptops and hibernate it instead. Then they're always complaining about how slow it runs or other issues. What do they expect when they haven't rebooted it for months?!
Don't be mean to nurses. They chose the size of your IV and foley catheter.
Yes, we do choose. But we choose based on medical necessity. e.g. There is a minimum IV catheter size for blood transfusions.
You can fix almost any problem you are having with your computer yourself by looking up the issue on Google, then following the instructions. 9/10 times someone has had the same problem as you before.
At many hotels/motels/hostels, bed sheets and pillowcases are changed and cleaned daily, but not the comforters and blankets..unless there is a noticeable smell or stain. It would cost too much to have them washed. It's gross.
Next time you check-in, ask for a new comforter. You'll get a clean one from the linen room.
source: I used to be a hotel housekeeping supervisor.
If you call a political office, chances are the politician will never get your comments (even though the interns answering the phone are required to say that they will).
I don't believe politicians care what their constituents think, they only care what their contributors think. Money runs politics.
Working in a post production house I've learned that around 10% of a films budget is covering up stupid mistakes.
If you call 911, it’s okay (and understandable) to panic, but if your default “panicked personality” is that you become a d**k, try and rein it in.
The people on the phone are the middle-men between you and the first responders... The primary concern for first responders is safety when they arrive, and things like “caller threatening operator” “caller will not answer safety questions and just keeps saying ‘hurry the f**k you piece of s**t’” can read like there may be something more than panic going on. Maybe even some mental health issues.
Your standard of care may always be the same when first responders arrive, but your response time will definitely be delayed if, say an ambulance needs to wait for police to attend with them to be safe because you threatened to k**l the 911 operators mom.
Be safe out there!
Would it be a good idea to mention mental disorders and disabilities? I'm just thinking how that would be a good thing, for anyone showing up, to know they may not be coherent or in a stable mind to cooperate as easily or understand what to do.
Hospitals mess up ALL the time. In both small and large ways. The laws and policies are so strict that making an error can cost someone a job or license, so the vast majority will do what it takes to cover it up. Administrations will also work to cover up things as well if they feel they can get away with it to avoid bad publicity.
And please...please..get an itemized list of treatment. a $10 Tylenol may not seem like much hassle, but extrapolate that over the entire bill(US only).
I work at a mortgage lender. This isn’t really an industry secret, but certainly a helpful tip. Never take out a loan at the max end of what you qualify for. People think that if a lender tells them they qualify for a certain loan max that means they can afford the loan and this is just not the case. That limit is what you can afford if your expenses don’t increase at all, and assumes you will basically not be saving any money on a monthly basis. Lenders only care if you can pay them back, not if you’ll be able to also save money.
Every hotel has a giant box of unclaimed phone chargers and will be more than happy to let you go through it. I'll never have to buy one again.
I work with UPS. If theres a holiday we try to keep your packages in an air conditioned building, but space is limited so we may have to leave your perishables out in the hot sun for a day. It's best to ship perishables when it's not a holiday or the weekend.
UPS 3 day select means if there's room on the plane it goes on the plane. If there isn't it ships by ground. Usually there's room on the plane.
2 day and next day air are just about the same thing. They usually all fit on the plane.
write "important" or "please rush" on your packages for faster shipping. We don't get paid enough to care and we'll just throw it in with other high priority items no matter what the official label says.
please ship heavy items in a heavy duty box. So many boxes are destroyed because people think they can put steel mining equipment in a paper bag.
Some multinational corporations maintain a hiring freeze and don't give out raises even though they have just had a record setting year of profits.
But then again, everyone already knew that.
Some multinational corporations raise prices when they know the market will tolerate it, even when profits are stable or rising, then lie about it being due to increased costs.
As a resident assistant at a university - most of us do not give a s**t if you drink and smoke. Just be discrete and don't make us come looking for you breaking the rules.
Never f**k with someone handling your food. Ever.
80% of profit from those d**g stores. (CVS, Walgreens etc) comes from the pharmacy in the back of the store.
The front is just there to get you inside.
Most lifeguards are not the super professional bad a**es I thought they were growing up, rather there a bunch of stoner teenagers who love to party and are actually terrified over some aspects over the job, particularly watching small kids and performing CPR.
Parents, watch your own kids if you want what's best for them. Better yet, SWIM with your kids and make sure they understand not to f**k with the guy in the big chair.
**Servers don't wash their hands as often as they should**. After the bathroom, yes, but if we touch your dirty plate, it's going straight to the dish pit and there's no time to wash hands before grabbing someone else's food and delivering it to the table. On busy nights, it's GO GO GO and no stopping. Sorry :(
Other things we touch before we touch your clean plate: Money, glasses, silverware, ourselves, our dirty apron, forks that have fallen into the trash accidentally, the computer screen to put in your order (where several other servers have touched only seconds prior).
Source: I'm a server and I've worked in restaurants for 8 years.
The government, DoD in particular, is incredibly wasteful with your money.
More retail fun...this time from the Loss Prevention department...
The biggest one that surprises people: At least once a week, someone s***s in the dressing room. It is the most foul thing I can imagine anyone doing, and the only legitimate excuse for such behavior is that you were raised by wolves. Still, it happens. Weekly.
From the LP standpoint, there aren't really a whole lot of secrets. Most people who shoplift already know that if they are confronted by security, that the best course of action is to bolt...because in nearly every store out there, LPO's are forbidden from giving chase. Every time I encountered what I considered a "good" shoplifter, they dropped the merchandise and ran like hell.
The most common thieves are teenagers who suck at it. Also common, and really bizarre, are the old people who will buy an armload of clothing and steal a 2-dollar pair of earrings for no discernible reason.
Professional shoplifters aren't incredibly common, but catching them is incredibly difficult. They can carry out a thousand dollars worth of merchandise without being spotted, and we can spend a day reviewing tapes without figuring out how they did it. They work in teams, create diversions, know where all of the blind spots are and they know how to target big-ticket items without being caught.
We get the odd shoplifting ring in our store. It's a bit scary having to work around them. They seem to stand out, don't browse like normal shoppers do. They're busy scanning and surveying the store layout, where the security guard stands and they are very interested in what we're doing and paying attention to. They walk around very quickly with backpacks and make beelines towards secluded areas of the store, or try to get in the locked washrooms.
I work in a all-scratch dessert bakery. At some point along the production line, its been frozen. Depending what youre making, its absolutely fine and makes no difference. I prefer to frost frozen cupcakes. We keep them frozen for 1-7 days before you buy them which is why they taste so f*****g good. The idea that everything should be baked that day and eaten is false. Bread, yeah. Danish or croissants? Yes, though a second day usually wont hurt. Lemon pound cake? Hell no. Wait til the next day for those flavors to really develop. Same with brownies, cakes, mousses... etc.
No, we dont mix, bake, cool and frost your cake an hour before you come get it. No, you wont be able to tell its a day older bc Im really good at my job. We laugh anytime someone tells us they want to come later in the day so its fresher. Its the same cake I finished yesterday so that if something goes wrong I have time to fix it before its due.
Cupcakes, and cakes, HAVE to be cool before you frost them or you end up with a runny mess. I've never frozen mine, but then, I'm just baking for myself or friends. And some icings taste better after being set up in the fridge for a few hours.
We don’t have it in the back and you’re wasting both of our time by asking me to go in the back and check. Ask retail employees if another store has it in stock instead.
If it’s not out on display, we probably don’t have it in stock in the back either. Retail stores can’t make money on items that aren’t out for consumers to buy but far too many people think retail workers are hiding items in the back. We aren’t in most cases (an exemption I know of is really big sizes of shoes. those are usually in the back at the store I worked at). A lot of chain retailers have the ability to check each other’s stock electronically so asking them to look at another store is more likely to find whatever you’re looking for.
This one has been on Bored Panda many times. The person or persons who write it apparently believe that when a delivery truck arrives at a store, the items on that truck somehow magically instantly transfer to the store shelves.
Never order an alcoholic drink by name, they will up charge you. Example: order a vodka orange juice ($5) vs a screwdriver ($6.50)
Source: I am a bar manager.
This may depend where you go. I know the bar staff in my town would just "correct" you on your order and charge you the same as in the drink menu.
2. We love to make you feel unsafe or threatened (especially for your children) because we know that makes you glue your eyes to our newscast.
3. We love to show you scandalous or negative stories about celebrities because we know you are jealous of them. Their mistakes or bad luck makes you feel superior to them.
Bar lady here, I can promise you if you click in my face to try to get my attention I will not serve you. Be nice and patient and I promise Ill be nice back to you and serve you as quickly as I can. When its busy its a little like being under attack during a zombie outbreak, but instead of wanting brains the masses want jagerbombs.
Agreed. Snapping your fingers won't get you served until last, if at all. I'll have to "go to the back" to get some more liquor after I magically find myself short (where did that barback go?) after I served the person in front of you. (Who WAS behind you, but since you snapped you're now last.)
Those delicious treats Starbucks has left over in their case at the end of the day? They all get thrown out, despite the fact that they are still good and tasty as hell despite being like 600 calories. It's to prevent hoarding of stuff so shady people can just take all of it home after closing. Makes me cry on the inside every time.
They could also be donated to a food bank or shelter. Too much food that could be shared with others is simply thrown away.
Subway corporate is even greedier than Walmart and McDonald's SOMEHOW, oh and if osha actually did proper inspections once in a while and subway didn't have such expensive lawyers the company would have been tanked already.
John Oliver did an interesting bit about Subway in the USA - it should be on YouTube - franchise holders don’t seem to be treated very well either.
The cost to manufacture a dental crown is $7.Also it takes only a few hours (2 if I remember right) from start to finish.
I'd rather have my crowns built by a well trained, well paid tech. It's not the doing, it's the knowing
"Can I put you on hold for a moment whilst I research this?" means I'm Googling the answer to your question or checking our local knowledgebase.
"It'll just be a few more moments" means I couldn't find the answer and I'm now asking coworkers.
"Hmm.... this may be a little while, what's a good number to call you back on?". What the f**k did you just do? Now I have to find the one guy who knows this obscure feature you broke and hope he remembers how to fix it. This will take anywhere for a few hours or a few weeks to get you an answer, depending on how obscure it is. Sometimes you have to track down some developer who worked on this thing 10 years ago that nobody but you uses and somehow is mission critical.
About 95% of calls I get I can answer and fix in a single phone call, it's that 5% that earns me my pay cheque.
And as a DJ, other DJs will 'shoulder look' and then aquire the same tunes as you. I get this all the time. 90% of it is track selection, no one really cares if you can mix or what your transitions sound like. You can press autosync on a controller and play top 40 dubstep or electro and everyone will love you. Skill doesn't matter any more and that's sad. Barely anyone even learns scratching or beat juggling or any turntablism any more.
My first job after college was at a factory owned by a billionaire that most of you hate.
I learned that accident reports are needlessly complicated so that nobody will ever use them. If you get so much as a paper cut, you can't just put a band-aid on it and keep going. You are "required" to drop work, fill out a thorough accident report that includes eye-witness accounts, and visit a doctor of the company's choosing. The company may choose to interpret the accident report against you, which would put your job in jeopardy.
There were dozens of minor accidents every day, but nobody ever filled out an accident report while I was there.
And most of you are aware, I'm sure, it makes a HUGE difference if you are hurt at work vs outside working hours. If you are hurt off the clock, you can't even drive BY the place much less work. Whereas if you are hurt ON the clock, they will go to GREAT lengths to keep you on the clock to eliminate a recordable lost time injury.
The music business is less about natural talent and more about hard work. In fact it's about 10% talent and 90% hard work. Some people make it with different proportions but you can really make something of yourself if you put in the hours.
The same goes for any creative, artistic skills. I was commenting on another site about this very topic today. People give credit to someone being "gifted" or "talented" like it's our mutant superpower. Yet it's due to dedicated hard work and many hours of practice and training. Some people countered that the practice to excellence is talent, because they tried to get into something or tried practicing a skills for a while without seeing much improvement. It's not because they necessarily "just can't". It's because they weren't determined and had a passion to keep it up, and had not experimented and learned about themselves in that area to figure out how to do that activity by using their personality. These people still have not understood what years and years of dedicated practice is.
Every other comedian f*****g hates you and will steal all your good material if you don't spread it around quick enough.
That depends on who they are and how they see you. No male has ever tried to steal my kitchen jokes
I work on a fairly secretive military camp and people should know that no one here has a f*****g clue how anything works or how to do their job.
Cosmetic industry manager: the "juice" in that Maybelline mascara / lip gloss etc... is probably the exact same as in a Lancome product.
If you walk into a hotel without a reservation and you look like you have money, chances are they'll try to sell the room to you for a higher price. This especially happens during summer and even applies to average looking people when they basically have no other choice (surrounding hotels are sold out and there's few rooms left).
Really the only way to work around it is to ask if there's a better deal they can get you. Once they know you don't have the money, they tend to just tell you the regular price or check if you apply for any company discount rates. I don't know about other hotels, but where I work we sometimes even throw in a coupon for free breakfast.
Fun fact: Desk employees are instructed to call around to the other hotels and find out their availability. If everyone else is sold out and you have 6 rooms left, those rooms just went up in price.
Fine dining restaurant. Why does everything taste so good? It's loaded with butter and salt. WAY more butter and salt than you can even imagine.
Unless otherwise specified, security guards aren't there to protect you. They're there to observe and report.
For example, if a shooter shows up at a warehouse, the guards aren't going to go out of their way to save you. Their job is to get out of the building, notify authorities, and wait for the cops to show up.
I was a uniformed and unarmed bank guard for a while. My instructions were to hide behind a pillar and get a good description.
I used to be a hotel supervisor and hotels are absolutely disgusting. Do not sleep with the duvet/comforter on the bed as it usually only gets washed like every 4 months. You're supposed to sleep with the sheet under it.
It really depends on how lazy the housekeeper who cleans your room is. But when I would inspect the rooms I caught them doing all kinds of nasty things to cut corners on cleaning.
Retail, black Friday is a scam. Up the prices weeks before drop them down slightly on black Friday.
I don't even remotely understand how GM produces working cars.
Seriously. Don't buy them.
Articles in magazines are outdated and are reposted every now then.
Especially parenting magazines. Babies haven't changed much over the decades. If I ran such a magazine I'd have a five-year stash of articles on eternal repeat. Occasionally I'd sub in something new just for kicks.
Used to work as a mechanic. The amount of sexism in this field is disgusting. There is this notion that women don’t understand cars so they will not question you about stuff. Idk how many times I was looking through my papers after working on a car and seeing charges of things I never did. It was always a woman customer too. Car dealerships are like that too. So my advice to women who are going to buy a car or getting it fixed is bring a man with you.
I used to work at a dealership as a warranty clerk and cashier. I always buy my own parts. I know what to search for on my vehicles and there's 2 shops that I use for repairs. A lot of places will not use customer supplied parts because of problems.
It's rare that a print shop prints everything in-house. It's impractical and would throw people out of business to try and print every single thing without outsourcing. You would need a ridiculous amount of machines, a ridiculous amount of space, etc. You'll also find that many print shops outsource to the same big printing company.
So some customers would come in and ask us, "do you print this in-house?" I would answer truthfully and if it was something we outsourced and they had concern I would casually explain why they had no reason to worry. Some customers wouldn't care about my explanation and would go elsewhere to get their print done. Thing is, I know some of the companies they would go to, and those companies outsource too. Only difference is that company is just going to lie and say they print it onsite in order to keep the customer.
Working at a Scholarship Resource Center at a university for 2.5 years, I learned a lot. Mostly that sob stories in your scholarship essays get you nowhere, half the time the judge throws your essay away after the first sentence if it's no good, and that there's a basic formula that you can master. Also, if you exceed your cost of attendance in scholarship winnings, you usually can't use any more of the money you won.
Painters are suppose to apply one coat of primer and two coats of paint but they will tint the primer the same color as the paint and just do one coat of paint to save money. It will cover but won't be as durable.
Call center: sometimes when a rep asks if they can place you on hold they are just muting themselves. This is because putting someone on hold shows up on statistics, but muting frequently doesn't. Downside: when you are talking to somebody in the room about how much of your b******t they are eating / what a a*****e/b***h the rep is they can hear all of it. Yelling gets you the minimum of accommodation and the other end of the call will rejoice if they can legitimately (but figuratively) tell you to go f**k yourself.
Road Construction: be nice to road construction workers. Drivers are a******s. Humanity sucks.
Data Center: do it right the first time on production systems because you will probably not be able to unplug it again without an act of congress (or being fired). Same goes for a Kirk key. With a big enough room and enough cooling you can actually create a rain cloud inside. Building thermal barriers are a good thing, and some builders are better than others (aka "condensation is a b***h" and "eat a d**k Apollo").
I manufacture kitchen cabinets.
A kitchen that retails for $50,000 only cost $2,000 to manufacture.
Very misleading...I was a purchaser for a stone countertop fabricator and some of the raw slabs are $2000 alone. Maybe the cabs only cost $2000 to make but there is more to a "retail kitchen" than cabinets.
This isn't a secret at all but if you go into a shop, particularly one that's part of a successful company, and try to haggle prices because you think you're smooth or that you've got the gift of the gab, you will not get a discount. Prices aren't decided by the branch manager; they're set by corporate/head office.
What will happen is that the staff will laugh once you've gone and call you a d******d.
Some shops have a small amount of discount they're allowed to offer, usually around 10%. If you want that, *don't ask for it,* or try to be slick and pushy or 'alpha', simply be an engaging person, have a conversation with the staff, and don't come across like an entitled p***k. The key is to wait for it to be offered. Or spend a lot of money, and then the manager might show their genuine appreciation for your business by giving you 10% off.
Retail stores. Most corporate retail stores have policies in place that make it impossible for employees to stop you from stealing things. When I worked at a corporate owned shoe store, someone could literally be stealing 200$ air Jordan's in front of me by putting them in their bags and walking out and I was powerless to stop them.
Home Depot employees can't go after shoplifters because they will be fired. My son works there. Several years ago in FL I think it was, a guy followed a man that was kidnapping a little girl and stopped it. The idiots fired him & it hit national news. They offered his job back & he turned it down because a different company offered him a job for more money.
When you ask someone to check the stock room for an item of clothing that isn't on the shop floor, most of the time you'll discover that they're one of two types of people.
1) They know it's not in there, but just to waste a few minutes they'll go and check
or
2) They know it's probably in there but will tell you that they checked earlier and didn't find anything.
I work at the front desk of a hilton. almost every single hilton honors member has their address on their profile. so in my downtime at work, i like to look up people's addresses on google maps and use street view to look at their houses. so...i know what my customers' houses look like? i guess that's a secret.
Work at Target. Basically the new policy is "say yes to the guest". You can basically return anything to Target and we'll take it back. Think a price is too high for something? Just say it was a few dollars less and, depending on the store, they probably won't check and will just change the price for you.
Is this a new thing? It's not what was happening in Canada when we had Target. Nothing was accepted for a return.
Pain is a normal part of the human experience. Only certain types of pain entitle you to narcotics, and constipation is not one of them.
It doesn't matter how good you are as long as there is somebody willing to kiss more a*s than you.
And that’s how all sorts of organizations fail; they’re looking for sycophants rather than competence.
Turn it off and on again.
Have you ever heard of he band asking for a bowl of m&m's with the brown ones taken out? anyway, i learned from working in music my whole life that its a rider request to check for attention to detail. for instance, i rent out musical equipment, and if the client has a "brown m&m" on their rider, its a way of assuming that if they can't get this detail right, something else is probably f****d as well. also when you see huge marshall stacks on a stage, usually none of them are plugged in. i could go on for hours like this.
That the cardboard cutouts for new releases in movie theaters are pretty much up for grabs by the employees once the place is done with them. seriously we used to argue over who got to take them home and sell them on eBay.
Librarian. We don't judge what you read. We're just happy you're reading.
Education: Your child lies. They lie because they don't want to get into trouble, or they lie by omission so you don't have the full story. The vast majority of kids will lie. Stop coming in and shouting at teaching staff before you have the full and accurate story. And then, 99% of the time, believe the staff. If I had a dollar for every parent who told me "My boy don't lie" when I'd done full investigation and knew that he did I could have retired long ago.
Librarian. We don't judge what you read. We're just happy you're reading.
Education: Your child lies. They lie because they don't want to get into trouble, or they lie by omission so you don't have the full story. The vast majority of kids will lie. Stop coming in and shouting at teaching staff before you have the full and accurate story. And then, 99% of the time, believe the staff. If I had a dollar for every parent who told me "My boy don't lie" when I'd done full investigation and knew that he did I could have retired long ago.
