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59 Shocking Industry Secrets That Are Widely Known Between The Professionals
There are things about every profession that the general public doesn’t know. For example, many retailers charge markups so high that we'd probably riot if we knew how much. In the clothing sector, markups can be as high as 100% or even 350% for shoes — even 500%. But the eyewear industry is where it’s really at, as markups on eyeglasses often reach 800% and even 1000%.
Similarly, many other industries and sectors have similar secrets, ones that we’re maybe better off not knowing. Still, people deserve to know, and, in an attempt at bringing transparency, one netizen recently asked others to share the secrets from their professions: “What is an open secret in your industry that the general public would be absolutely horrified to know?” they wrote in a post online. Scroll down and see the truth that surgeons, ranchers, legal experts, and many more don’t want you to know.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
When i worked at a call center for a bank you got better results being nice to person on the phone than yelling. When people called about fees if they were nice looks like a bank error happened im sorry about that. You yelled, cursed, and said rude things sorry nothing i can do.
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#2
All the code AI is writing is basically unmaintainable. Big SaaS systems *will* come crashing down before too long.
Look at Github today, and imagine that's everything in a few years.
#3
There is a remarkable number of bad surgeons.
crashthegreenhat 15 minutes ago
50% of doctors graduated medical school in the bottom half of their class
#4
I train service dogs, and volunteer my time to help train new teams in my community.
Something people are horrified to learn is that businesses pretend to be legitimate service dog programs and flip rescue dogs into "service dogs" with little or no training and sell them for large profits of 40k or more per dog.
#5
How every harvester has rat poison, rat traps, rat bodies, rat poop, and all things related to rats and mice on every single machine. Rats and mice are a huge problem around our food at the farm.
#6
Plastics recycling is 100% fake at the post-consumer level. It’s also the fact that there simply is no replacement for petrochemical plastics yet unless you want literally everything in your life to be ten times more expensive.
#8
You are giving away lots of rights on all the forms you sign and click through without reading. And no. You don’t have a choice.
#9
Most commercial truck drivers don’t actually inspect the truck like they should (pre trip). if they find a violation/ safety issue they won’t report it (post trip)They will just try to pass it off to the next person (slip seat drivers).
crashthegreenhat 13 minutes ago
My FIL drives truck, he has known people who got fired for doing this. I used to drive school bus and I know 1 driver who got fired for it as well. Both of us are CDL license holders. If something happens and investigations show it has been an issue for a while, all the drivers who operated that vehicle during that time may be in trouble on the FEDERAL level
#10
The success of your therapy is mostly based on if you’re willing to commit to changing, the other determining factor is how good of a relationship you have with your therapist. The type of therapy used is a distant third.
#11
Many utility companies are less certain than you’d think they should be about the location of their underground infrastructure.
Many chemical and oil processing facilities continue to intentionally defer maintenance and plant safety upgrades that are designed to prevent or mitigate potentially catastrophic events. Unfortunately, many of these facilities now sit in close proximity to heavily residential areas.
#12
Maybe this is more well known than I realize, but: Professors at colleges and universities are assessed almost entirely on the basis of the research/scholarship they produce. Teaching is not really a factor. You could be the most outstanding teacher (not just well liked, but genuinely a teaching prodigy for all the right reasons) and institutions of higher education, with very few exceptions, will hire, promote, tenure, or otherwise reward, the more productive researcher 99 times out of hundred. Even small liberal arts colleges that appear to be teaching oriented tend not to value teaching.
crashthegreenhat 11 minutes ago
That is because the research pulls in federal grants. Teaching does not. Teaching pulls in student tuition, so if you do not contribute to the university's two income streams, they have no need of you
#13
All CPAs and tax people do is just take information you give them and run it through special software. It’s mostly AI now, too. If you think some guy in glasses is poring over your financial statements with a calculator making sure all the numbers line up, you’re fooling yourself. The sheer amount of work most CPAs take on wouldn’t allow them to make a profit and personally look at your finances anyway, plus, in reality, it’s a lot less accurate that way. I think this industry/profession is going to be completely replaced by AI soon.
#14
Ex political PR here. They all lie. Shocker, I know. But what actually shocked me at the beginning of my career was realizing that there is absolutely no political party/option I will ever be able to fully support. Sometimes it's selective truth; technically accurate, but stripped of context and presented in a way designed to make you believe something else. Sometimes it's spin. And often they simply lie.
Another thing I didn't expect: politicians are often three steps ahead of their own PR teams. People assume PR knows everything and our job is to figure out how to sell it to the public. Not necessarily. Things are deliberately kept from us too. Because the more people who know something, the greater the chance it leaks.
You would be surprised at the magnitude of the things they lie about — things you’d assume would be far too important, consequential or risky to lie about.
Also leftist - right-winger; it does not matter. They are very much connected.
#15
I'm a software developer for online payment security.
People are constantly *attempting* to hack into systems to get people's bank details, it happens every single day, multiple times. Trying to hack systems that hold hundreds and thousands of peoples details to take their money.
#16
In the entertainment industry, producers don’t get paid until the movie or show is weeks away from getting made. And even then, they still might get their fees cut. All that after working for years for free. They are first in and last out of a project, and last to get paid. Oh and they also have no health insurance and no guild protecting them.
crashthegreenhat 9 minutes ago
That is because producers fund the projects so they get made. They then make money off of that profits the movies get made. This is kinda how investing works, their money pays the salaries for those making the movies and they get paid when the movie makes money.
#17
Libraries don’t want your old books. That complete set of encyclopedias you saved since the ‘80s? The box of moldy paperbacks from your dad’s basement? We don’t want them, we can’t use them, and they go straight into recycling/trash.
Now, if they’re in good condition and something someone else might want to read, that’s a different story. We can either use them or put them in the book sale.
#19
Judges *regularly* make politically and/or emotionally motivated decisions rather than decisions based on evidence.
#20
Diet Coke is NOT based on the coke formula and it wasn’t even made by the Coca Cola company. Coke could never make it taste even close to the regular flavor so they bought someone else’s product that was already on the market….in a vastly smaller region…..and just renamed it Diet Coke because it was the closest thing to the regular coke flavor.
#22
There's no testing required for 5th wheel hitches in the RV industry - all those huge 5th wheel trailers being towed on the highway.... the only thing keeping it connected to the truck pulling it, doesn't have any required test to be approved to use.
#24
The US medical research industry is in a really bad place, and it's rapidly getting worse.
crashthegreenhat 7 minutes ago
Amazing what happens when insurance companies take the bulk of what we pay for medical bills. In the meanwhile, Cuba (a 3rd world country the US has tried to starve out of existence for decades) has better rated health care than the US
#25
Ranch work means back-breaking labour (and exposure to other harmful factors) that can give you old people problems before the age of 30.
#28
If you're a fussy patient yes, we're talking about you in the back office. And the doctors are usually on our side.
#29
US Food Service inspections. Meat packaging plants in particular, but this is pretty much the whole food industry: you're barely being inspected.
There aren't enough inspectors. Period. The ones that are there are technically working for the government, but their paychecks come from the company that's being inspected.
Yeah, that's a thing. It's accepted. Our food contamination rate seems to be increasing (though there is a lot of produce concerns there, so don't drop that at the meat industry), as our government is defunding anything that looks like oversight.
crashthegreenhat 6 minutes ago
Didn't the US fire a lot of inspectors in the last year and a half?
#30
Big Coca Cola would have you believe that McDonald’s Coke tastes better because of the stainless steel tanks of Coke syrup and reverse osmosis systems.
In theory it’s true, but if you could see how many McDonald’s have never once sanitized their tanks that are supposed to be sanitized every time one runs empty you would be sick to your stomach.
#31
There's a certain large, private mental health clinic in Melbourne, Australia. It's such an unethical place, but too many important people work there for it to get shut down. It's a toxic environment that can get dangerous for patients *and* staff. And the staff are the main reason it gets dangerous.
I would never victim blame someone for getting attacked in their workplace....but actually yes I would.
#32
I work in a hospital. A nursing director once said this, which has stuck with me for 25 years:
“Everything in a patient care setting is covered with a fine veneer of feces.”.
#33
I worked in resale for years- we are stealing the good stuff. Not all of it, but you better believe we're skimming off the top.
#34
I work in the trading of seafood. We as consumers pay wayyy too much for our seafood and it mindboggles me. Fresh certified Norwegian farmed salmon are usualy at ~6.36€/kg (2.89$/lb). American lobsters go for 12€/kg (6.3$/lb) in Europe at least, and farmed certified Greek/Croatian Gilthead seabreams go around 9€/kg (4.72/lb).
And don't forget that EVERY wild fish have parasites. Due to the rise of sea level and its temperature increase, parasites and lices are becoming inevitable. When eating raw fish/not cooked through, please either make sure that it is farmed from a certified aquaculture, or frozen before connsumption.
#35
If you’re ever behind on your mortgage payment the bank sends an inspector to drive by and photograph your home.
Most people never notice this happening. But if you’re late on your mortgage and see a car pull up in front of your home and someone snapping photos from inside the car then quickly driving off, that’s your bank protecting its asset.
#36
As a recently retired ex-academic - and as news stories have been reporting a lot of late - most recently appointed academics (starting 5+ years ago) got their job through plagiarism and, increasingly, DEI box-checking. Academia is now rotten to the core.
#37
The energy industry is horrendously out of date, largely due to people refusing to replace tech from the 50s/60s because they can get rates on their power from that era.
Oh and one from my husband’s work: a lot of very strange, very disturbed men work in pest control (although a woman still holds the record for the wildest behaviour he’s heard of).
#38
If you donate your body to science it is mostly likely going to be cut up and sold in pieces to surgical education centers or research labs. Your arm, foot, knee, and even head could end up being sent to four different places throughout the country.
#39
Goes beyond just my industry: If Microsoft Excel were to go down worldwide for an extended period of time (e.g. weeks) the global economy would probably come to a halt faster than COVID.
When I started in my career in the early 2000’s, my answer would have been how so much of the infrastructure behind the financial services industry was based on ancient software developed in the early 1980’s. That’s less so today, though.
#41
The defense industry doesn’t pay for anything. They do their own research, bill the government for the labor ($200-$300/hr) and get to keep the IP. This is on top of their massive contracts where the government pays for the overruns.
#42
Your therapist probably really does care about you, but the clinic doesn’t. At all. Your therapist is being pushed for “billable hours” and quick (and because it’s quick, sloppy) diagnosis. If your therapist had their way, they would take a lot more time with you and be way more careful, but the system is brutal.
#43
The exam boards in the UK are inadequate and ruin kid's futures with their incompetence.
I am a teacher and examiner for exam boards. The standards for marking exams get lower every year. You used to do a day for face to face training, now you are lucky if you get a 10 minute video. The system is made to protect the exam board, rather than make sure each student is given a fair grade.
If you request a remark, the mark will only change if the remark brings the response to a higher level on the mark scheme. So an examiner might award 4 marks on a remark but it will come as unchanged because it stays within a level on the mark scheme. Bare in mind some students miss out on their uni places by 1 mark. Remarks per paper cost at least £50.
Examiners are 'moderated' or 'seeded' which means a small sample of their marks are checked against the chief examiner. For some NEA subjects, if the examiner is seen to be out an algorithm will change all of their marks (without another human looking at all the responses).
Basically, if you have rich parents or go to a private school, you can probably pay to get the incompetent marking corrected. If you are poor or go to a state school, you probably have to live with it.
#44
All aircraft have cracks in many components; they’re just not critical enough to warrant changing the part yet.
#45
All of the carefully arranged cookie and snack platters at corporate meetings and media pitch events are usually manhandled by interns with unwashed hands, sometimes with them eating a thing or two and licking their fingers while still arranging your food with their now-spitty hands.
Also, it's become common practice for assistants/interns to use and then return disposable tablecloths and other party supplies to stores, so don't expect any of those that come in an unsealed or resealable package to be clean.
#46
Childcare workers act right around parents but do not care about your kids. They will yell at, ridicule, man-handle, humiliate and isolate your child for acting like a child who is still learning.
#47
Discount cards like good Rx sell all of your information, give you a discount, and charge the pharmacy for the privilege. Go to an independent pharmacy, Sam’s , or Costco and probably get a better price without losing your privacy.
#48
A majority of psychotherapists are largely garbage providers that do the bare minimum regarding therapy and continuing education and with the rise of online masters programs the pool is getting worse each year. Twenty years ago during my training we had numerous folks wash out/ fail as it became apparent in classes, role plays, and presentations they didn’t have a clue. Now you pay those same folks to grunt and nod and give you a handout for homework before they cut and paste your last session note into this weeks documentation.
#49
In regard to quality control, good enough is good enough. Even when it comes to automotive, aerospace, and safety products. We don’t waste product that is produced out of specification. We sprinkle it normal product shipments a little at a time to try and get past the customers quality inspectors. 95% of the time they never know we sent them bad product. The bottom line is production pays the bills and quality always costs money so production always wins.
#52
The owners of your grandma's nursing home don't care about your grandma. They only care about the money she brings in. And they'll keep that place as understaffed as possible to make more money.
#53
In car sales, the service/parts department profit pays for every expense. All sales had to do is break even. There’s a reason the sales department is small and service takes up the whole building.
#54
Many times the “professionals” who you hire to work on your home rely on instructions from counter staff at supply houses who know barely anything about your specific project as they manage tens of thousands of skus. Once had a guy ask me for a “generic furnace motor” because “they’re all the same, right?”
This device was going to have natural gas flowing through it inside of someone’s home. It’s terrifying.
#55
Zookeepers get paid abysmally, at least in the US. I've seen the National Zoo offer $25/hr but every other position I've seen or worked has been $19/hr or less. This is for a career that almost always requires you to have a 4 year degree. I also have not met a single zookeeper who doesn't struggle with some sort of chronic pain or injury from the physical labor and most of my coworkers have been at most in their 30s. On top of all that, keepers are often under a lot of mental pressure while taking care of their animals and dealing with grief (due to an animal passing) ends up being a large part of the job. People will really take advantage of the fact that "everyone wants to work with animals".
#58
It’s pretty common that your skin biopsy, gut biopsy from a colonoscopy, etc. will accidentally get thrown away after your procedure in your doctor’s office. Source: I work in a pathology lab and we receive empty specimen jars often and have to call the doctor office to let them know.
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