25 Ex-Employees Spill The Tea On Corporate Secrets

Many of us have encountered companies that, after working for them, we'd rather steer clear of their services or products. The catch is, most places would terminate your employment if you publicly revealed what happens behind the scenes.  However, when someone recently asked, "What corporate secret can you now safely share since you no longer work there?" former employees spilled the beans. They shared insights ranging from tips and tricks for navigating customer support and dealing with hotel staff to unsettling revelations about the inner workings of fast-food restaurants.

#1

Image source: LuckySunshine3, Karolina Grabowska Health insurance dude. When you file a claim, it is often denied because they're counting on you not escalating it. Once you do, your case goes to a "medical management group" which ought to be called the "we don't wanna pay" group. Keep escalating and involve your doctor. Fight for the insurance you paid for.

#2

Farmed salmon is Frankenfish. They are infested with sea-lice to the point that their eyes are eaten out and they have huge open sores on their skin. They are chock-full of growth hormone and antibiotics. The fish that die off by the millions from infection are still allowed to be sold for human consumption. I had a friend who worked as a diver for Grieg Seafoods, a Norwegian fish-farming company, and the videos he had were horrifying. Image source: TownieToBayman

#3

Image source: a333482dc7, Specna Arms Used to work at a factory that made US military boots and shoes. Looking perfect was way more important than comfort. Some for the Navy were hard to get the back height right when sewing/forming the leather, so when the soles went on, they were adjusted to look level. Basically, the sole of a left or right would be much thicker than the other. I've seen some off by a half inch/15mm. I constantly brought it up to management, that it was essentially the same as having a piece of 1/2 inch board taped to the bottom of the boot, and would be extremely uncomfortable walking the 20 miles a day like they do. They didn't care as long as it looked good.

#4

Worked for a major Railroad in the 90's. I worked in HazMat/Environmental. So making sure HazMat laws are followed and the environmental side was cleaning up HazMat spills. They had fulltime staff that were lobbyist. When something really bad would happen; Railcar with nasty s**t in it crashes into a water way. The lobbyist job was to get the law changed so they didnt have to pay anything and even to correct it. The will do ANYTHING to keep from paying fines. If the state threatens to take them to court, they counter they will close all rail traffic in the state (as they own the rail). Image source: Outrageous-Hawk4807

#5

I did data entry for a major telecommunications company 20 years ago. The sales representatives would file expense reports for so much c**p under “entertaining expenses” and the company uses this as their basis for tax reduction. For example, one sales rep was very good friends with a guy who was a branch manager for one of our customers. A couple of times a month the sales rep would host his friend aboard his fishing boat, and he would write expense reports to pay for their beer and refreshments and ice for their cooler and gas for the boat. All came under “entertainment expenses.” And since the guy was a customer, the sales manager signed off on it. There was all kinds of the stuff going on. The company also sponsored a national golf tournament and paid for entertainment expenses for customers who were executives from large corporations. The expense reports for these events came in, and they were 4 to 5 inches thick and had to be manually entered. So there we were, clerks, barely making enough to live on and were transcribing accounts showing that a vice president (customer of ours) would check into a luxury hotel, suite, and immediately send their clothes out for dry cleaning, order shrimp cocktails and champagne from room service, and my company would pick up the entire tab. Multiply this by about 300 other individuals. These people had generational wealth and they were highly placed into large corporations. The irony was that these were the people most likely to complain about welfare for low income people and yet they were getting all this paid for, and my company was using it to eliminate their tax. This is why you hear about about corporations not paying any tax, because of write offs like this. Don’t get me started on their conventions because that’s exponentially worse…. Image source: Whats4dinner

#6

Image source: thenight817, Firmbee.com Never put your information into any online financial form that claims to comparison shop for you. 1. They don’t comparison shop for you. 2. They sell your info to 4-5 of the highest bidders and your phone will be blown up with calls and texts for weeks with people trying to sell you their finance stuff. Sorry!

#7 I worked for a consulting service. 90% of our reports were just copy and pasted. We charged thousands for every one

Image source: coolfreeusername, Gabrielle Henderson

#8 When I was young I worked at a meat processing/packaging plant. Hotdogs, bologna, pepperoni, etc. Not really a corporate secret I’m revealing. but the production of all that s**t was disgusting. Worse than you think.

Image source: anon, Amanda Lim

#9 The cheap.dole orange juice, medium priced Tropicana and expensive naked juice are all the same s**t.

Image source: jaarl2565, JÉSHOOTS

#10 I will flat out just say don’t trust any diamond grading report that is not GIA. I worked for another diamond grading lab that worked with retail jewelers and the boss would fudge the grades to help them.

Image source: Steamedcarpet, Eileen Pan

#11

Worked in nursing homes for years. Not sure how “secret” this is but a couple things: most of the staff does actually care about the patients, we just have many. But you yelling and screaming at staff because of how we treat your parent is almost certain to make us care much less. The people who are kind and patient get better care for their parents every time. Also lowkey: once your parent goes into a nursing home/independent living, they really do start to live a different life, with different social groups, norms, and daily routines. They usually adapt more easily than their kids do and when their kids visit and start hollering about every little thing, it causes the patient more stress and anxiety than anything else. Image source: jshamwow

#12

Image source: TsunaTenzhen, Myriam Jessier Former data analyst for an alcohol monitoring company. I won't say the name but they're the big one with the ankle bracelet that measures alcohol from your sweat. Most of the time, the data is made up. We get a VERY vague idea of how the alcohol is being expelled from their body through sweat. Sometimes it's enough to make some sense of it but most of the time we were "encouraged" to "find the event" through the noise or we would be fired. Because of this, I believe numerous people reported false information to the courts. This has ruined countless people's lives. Their own and their families. I quit before the end of my 90 day probationary period.

#13 When people submit their videos to viral social media pages, they immediately sign the rights of the video away to the company. but people rarely ever read the fine print on the submission forms so don't realise

Image source: Anna_Marchant, cottonbro studio

#14 Wayfair will buy and photograph competitor's furniture and stuff that looks close enough to their own cheap s**t. We were told if a vase arrived looking like plastic c**p, to go to West Elm or Target etc and buy a ceramic better looking one. Same.with couches, chairs, and so on. They are a C**P company to work for and their goods are 90% garbage.

Image source: early_exit, Antoni Shkraba

#15 Rental car companies: the upgrade price is made up on the spot.

Image source: Rounder057, Antoni Shkraba

#16

Image source: theassassintherapist, Irina Iriser I did data entry for a church before, digitalizing all their wills and donations. Since my NDA has long passed, I can say that it's ridiculous. People donating their entire wealth, millions upon millions to the church, even private estates and islands. There's even old money trusts from like 1800s still pumping in money. It's a sham and these churches are filthy rich. And it's not even a "prosperity" megachurch.

#17

My aunt worked building chicken houses for large poultry companies. When you pay the extra couple dollars for free range eggs, you feel you’re doing the right thing. A lot of these companies have “free range” chicken houses that leave the doors open. The chickens can come and go as they please. However, the companies install large fans at the doors that make the chickens afraid to leave the chicken houses, forcing them to stay inside. The whole free range thing is ultimately b******t. Image source: GobbleGobbleSon

#18

Image source: davetheweeb, Mockup Graphics If you have a medical device that uses electricity, you can send your prescription to the electric company and they can’t legally ever turn your electricity off. Edit: Since multiple people take everything completely literally here. I’m referring to if you don’t pay your bill they can’t legally turn you off. I’m by no means referring to maintenance, fire protection, or power outages. Idk why I need to explain this. Also idk if it’ll affect your credit score or anything along those lines.

#19 Hotel industry: of course club members get priority when it comes to upgrades, but even if you’re not a member, you are more likely to get a free upgrade if you list “Dr.” as your prefix.

Image source: bluerazorscooter, Pixabay

#20 The Radisson Hotel has a "Yes I can" policy. If they are capable of doing something for you as a guest and you ask directly, they are supposed to say yes and maintain a positive attitude towards providing you satisfying services. ALWAYS SHOW UP EARLY FOR CHECK IN AND ASK FOR AN UPGRADE. This is how I go from $250 a night in a regular room to $250 a night for a jacuzzi suite every time I travel.

Image source: Kathleenannne, prayitnophotography

#21 Not sure if it is all furniture stores, but they like to sell you stain resistant coating. It is literally a 6 dollar bottle of scotch guard in a spray bottle. We would charge 90 dollars per item sprayed.

Image source: planeteater, Pixabay

#22 Any lab who runs any type of genetic test on you is selling that data in one form or another.

Image source: Cornnole, Polina Tankilevitch

#23

An open secret at a big orange box retailer of home improvement goods I used to work at was that they would accept pitches for new products from inventors, demand a sample for consideration before agreeing stock it in store, then ship the sample to China to create a similar product with just enough changes to skirt patent law, copyright, etc. Image source: Jackieirish

#24 There's almost always mold in the ice machine. Both my S.O. and I have worked in many restaurants. You'll live but it's still gross. I always ask for no ice.

Image source: Canis71, Ryutaro Tsukata

#25 If you've ever put your ID into a computer for a background check it's probably been circulated to others regardless of whatever cybersecurity claims the company doing the background check claims.

Image source: letsgotgoing, Dom J