25 People Confess The Darkest Secrets Of Their Field Of Work

We find out a lot of industry secrets when we take on a job in a new field. The shady reasons why certain things are set according to a certain process, or the little shortcuts businesses take to make a quick buck out of their customers are all exposed to employees within the field.  Recently one Redditor posted online asking, “What’s the dark secret about your profession that the general public doesn’t know?” Employees from various professions responded with their juiciest industry secrets, which you can find in the gallery below. 

#1 Former heavy machinery worker. Everything from in facility work to road and construction work.

Image source: killbillydeluxe, IslandHopper X/Pexels (not the actual photo) Every single guy...I mean every guy, that operates a backhoe or asphalt roller or bulldozer absolutely LOVES and gets a kick when we see kids watching and being interested in what we are doing. We all want to stop and let them on the machine and allow them to run it, but are only forced to not to because of rules and insurance. When we get together for lunch we aren't talking about the women we saw. We're talking about the little boy in the red hoodie who clapped when we dumped a shovel. And not one guy teases you for thinking it was great, because otherwise the job is just grinding and our bosses suck. I figured we needed a bit of positivity on this thread.

#2 80% of women with developmental disabilities will experience SA. The statistics are already horrible for neuro typical women but most people outside the field have no idea it's so high. It is horrific.

Image source: wylderpixie, Becca Correia/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#3 When they make a pain cream, they put in ingredients to make you "feel" something, like menthol, because it's associated with "doing something" or "working". Simple not feeling anything (or less pain) is not associated with effecacy.

Image source: ThePainCream, Karolina Kaboompics/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#4 No so much a dark secret, but authors make pennies on the dollar. Even mid-to-high level authors have to work a day job.

Image source: MicahCastle, Suzy Hazelwood/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#5 Food service, 20 years in the industry. Even surrounded by all of that food you barely have an opportunity to eat or drink anything. A lot of food service work is part time unless you're a manager, and if you're a salaried manager forget ever having a life outside of work, you are on call 24/7/365, even on your days off.

Image source: JessicaLynne77, Rene Terp/Pexels (not the actual photo) You're on your feet from the moment you start your shift until you clock out. You barely have a chance to sit down unless you're using the bathroom. If you're waiting tables, you earn $2.13 per hour, and all of it is taken in taxes, so you're living on customer's tips. You have to balance a heavy tray of food and drinks on one hand while dodging coworkers and customers and trying not to spill anything. Then you have the customers with entitled attitudes who want their food fast, fresh and hot but don't want to wait for it and refuse to pay their server by tipping them for doing their job. There's a lot of prep work that goes on before the restaurant opens in order to get your meal out in a timely manner. If your restaurant serves breakfast you are awake when your customers are asleep, yep, you're clocking in at 3 am. And we wake up every day to do it for you. So treat restaurant workers well!

#6 It is entirely possible that your veterinarian will kiss your kitten's belly when you are not looking.

Image source: catdoctor, Mk7 Bober/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#7 Economist here. The dirty secret is that economists do actually know what they're doing, politicians and pundits just ignore us and do whatever they want to make more money for the rich. Oh and all conservative economic theory is a made up scam. Trickle down is a scam.

Image source: POEness, Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#8 Persuasive design is unbelievably effective on websites.

Image source: bugbugladybug, Canva Studio/Pexels (not the actual photo) A little scarcity message there, a little was/now pricing, a big ol' prominent "buy now" button in just the right place, badly designed filters that limit your ability to see the cheapest products. Lots of websites are utterly garbage, and some might *look* garbage and have obviously annoying experiences (Amazon anyone?) but it's like that because you spend more money, and cost the company less money - not to make it good for you. We know how long you spend on a page, what you look at, what will make you buy, and how to keep you engaged for as long as possible. We know you are using an iPhone - the newest, largest model - and are likely a wealthier prospect, so will tailor our messaging and pricing to squeeze every cent out of you that we can. These experiments are conducted on you without your knowledge in order to make you part with your money.

#9 Professor. We are totally invested in helping you to make amazing work, we stick up for students all the time. We take the responsibility of helping you win very seriously. The only dark thing is that many people see it the other way around.

Image source: treetopalarmist_1, RDNE Stock project/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#10 50% of our entire financial and banking system runs on legacy cobol code written prior to 1980.

Image source: bmaeser, Ono Kosuki/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#11 The number of completely incompetent employees working in health care settings is appalling.

Image source: ParfaitThat654, Pixabay/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#12 Funeral Director/Embalmer here. I don’t know that this is a particularly “dark” secret, but despite the rising popularity, the lack of understand around what cremation really is always shocks me.

Image source: rosemarylake, Ksenia Chernaya/Pexels (not the actual photo) You do not get “ashes” back. You get back bone fragments. In school we had it drilled into us to never use them term “ashes” because it is so inaccurate and only perpetuates this misunderstanding. Your body is not reduced to a fine, powdery ash that will float off in the wind/water when scattered. It is reduced to large chunks of bone which are then processed to try to attain a fairly uniform consistency. Much more like a heavy sand.

#13 A boutique hotel I worked at didn’t wash comforters unless they had to. And even then you really had to push. I was pulled to help with housekeeping fairly regularly in the busy season, found a quilt with blood on it - sent it to laundry. It was sent back 5 mins for being “clean enough” ?? My housekeepers told me it was normal. I was horrified. I cringe staying at hotels and take a blanket when I can.

Image source: allthecrazything, Engin Akyurt/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#14 I work in laboratory support for a life sciences department at a mid-size university, and the amount of plastic waste we generate is astounding. .

Image source: ggc5009, Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#15 I worked at a mental health facility. They were all about image and money. Very few clients were ever discharged. They were far more interested in the money than actually helping people.

Image source: jlverno, Alex Green/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#16 I used to be a police officer: There were a lot of unspoken rules about making sure we had a high number of arrests. Demonstrating high arrest numbers meant we got federal/state grant money. This kept the prosecutor employed along with the entire court system and showed the town/city we needed a larger budget because of all the arrests. The entire criminal justice system is literally a giant business which [profits] off the backs of the public

Image source: T-Rat93, Rosemary Ketchum/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#17 Book editor. Unless you have a massive social media following/built-in audience already, chances are very small you'll get published by a major house. Chances are even smaller that you'll make any money from your book. Just self-publish if you really want to get your work out there: the publishing industry is 95% about making money and 5% about publishing decent books.

Image source: ergo_slump, Claudia Uriarte Laya/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#18 Professors are regularly pressured into passing failing students to keep up graduation levels. I even had the registrar go into the system and change grades. Let’s just say I have seen my fair share of students who failed my science course but were passed by admins who are now building your bridges, interstates, buildings,levees, and multi-level parking lots.

Image source: BagelwithQueefcheese, cottonbro studio/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#19 During an autopsy, we will not take care with your organs and stuff them back in any old how so they fit back in your chest cavity.

Image source: PathosMai, RF._.studio/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#20 For anyone that didn't serve in the military, it's an absolute s**t show. Just another corporation with fancy names for managers and employees. I don't know how the govt functions after having served lol.

Image source: demesm, Specna Arms/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#21 Security guard: In an active shooter event, we're not going to protect your a*s. We're heading to the nearest safe exit and calling the cops.

Image source: HeyTuesdayPigInAPoke, YuriArcursPeopleimages/Envato (not the actual photo)

#22 I work in the gas pipeline industry and there's been massive accidents and terror attacks people have no idea about and were never reported nor ever will be. All over the world.

Image source: LuciusSweetsCrown, DeLuca G/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#23 The US public school system is on the brink of collapse.

Image source: imveryclever, Kobe -/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#24 Dental Hygienist here: Not sure if ppl are aware that a RDH only requires an associates degree in science (2 1/2 yr program), medium salary is approx. 70k, 4 day work week most offices, good hours (no nights), free dental care and usually discounted for family. It’s a pretty good career and if you work at a private practice it’s pretty easy because you’re seeing patients who return every 6 months and have good home care. I have friends graduating from a 4 year college and deep in debt getting 25k job offers. It’s not a bad gig.

Image source: 2thSprkler, Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels (not the actual photo)

#25 I'm a game developer who used to work on mobile games before moving to PC development. Mobile game developers know exactly how much you've spent on the game and when so they can target you with a pop-up at just the right time to get your money. This is a fairly automatic process though not someone sitting in a room watching you.

Image source: NoMarsupial159, Alexander Kovalev/Pexels (not the actual photo) A lot of people know this so I'll throw in a bonus secret - with regional pricing people in second and third world countries are paying a tiny fraction of what you pay for the same MTX. In first world countries it's all about finding the whale who will spend BIG on a game but in second/third countries they just try to maximise volumes of sale. Remember, an MTX usually cost about a day or less than that's work to implement but from then on costs the company exactly £0. You are buying thin air or worse yet just the opportunity to keep playing the game. Super bonus third secret that I'm sure isn't much of a secret - mobile gaming ads are downright lies honestly. It's never the primary gameplay loop. It'll be in the game somewhere but limited access and never as good as it looks in the ad. I just straight up don't recommend mobile gaming to people any more. There may be some good games out there but the majority are quite exploitative. Gambling but without the part where the company ever pays you any money. You just get a shiny hat or some bs.