35 Various Employees Spill Useful Industry Secrets

The more you know, the smarter you are. If you’re inclined to living life through the lense of knowledge, then this list may have teach you something new. The following list of suggestions were found on a Reddit thread where folks had come together to discuss surprising industry secrets that they felt “Everyone should probably know”. Scroll below to read all the hidden aspects of organizations that may be relevant to the general population but isn’t public knowledge.

#1

Image source: justaheatattack, Shiny Diamond

Human teeth are not white, they’re yellow.

Stop bleaching your teeth.

#2

Image source: TheVeduArcher, Westwind Air Service

Pilot here.

We’re not flying the airplane unless we know it’s safe. Not ever. Ever.

We’re not interested in dying either.

_austinm:

Aircraft maintenance technician here. All planes have to be maintained under a rigorous schedule. I’m talking specific inspections every 6 months/100 flight hours, more at 12 months/200 hours, and so on. Plus heavy checks (usually labeled by letter– A check, for example). Each one of these checks has a fairly long list of inspections that have to be done. And this isn’t even taking into account the walkaround inspection the pilots have to do before takeoff.

Basically, you have nothing to worry about when you board a plane. Due to the vast amount of government regulation, air travel is as safe as it can possibly be.

#3

Image source: rhymnocerous, Paloma Gil

Abortion pills are available by mail in all fifty states of the US, regardless of state laws. There are doctors and legitimate websites that will send pills out and there are many numbers to call for guidance. Plancpills.org is the best website to find the pills, and abortionpillinfo.org is the best place to learn how to use them.

#4

Image source: bassistmuzikman, Nathaniel Yeo

Prescription d***s (in America) do not need to cost anywhere near what they do. Pharmaceutical companies waste money like nobody else. In most cases, the company is just charging the absolute maximum amount the market will bear. It’s a moral dilemma I struggle with daily.

#5

Image source: Chubbinson, Emiliano Bar

I work in prison and see a lot of people sentenced for causing a death or serious injury while driving drunk who otherwise don’t have a remarkable criminal background. You think of prison and you think d***s, violent crimes, etc. but this is one of those crimes that can take you from being an average Joe to a felon in an instant. So, not a secret but don’t drink and drive. Or text and drive!

#6

Image source: Shoddy_Paramedic_702, Filipe de Azevedo

Yes, some of the workers are undocumented. Yes, they do a lot of the work others will not or can not do. We also do a lot of the work they will not or can not do. In our season they show up at 6am and leave at 7pm every day of the week. Twice a month they also cook huge meals for everyone, out of their own pocket. Some of us have to hide money in their bags and things to get them to take it. Ive watched them make and serve their own food to people in MAGA hats, with a smile. I love them. Every single one of them.

#7

Image source: mithos343, DragonImages

A*****e parents are way more common than you think. Way, way more common. *Soul-crushingly common.*

polly6119:

As a teacher for 23 years I absolutely agree. People give CPS a hard time. But they don’t realize how horrible a lot of parents are. CPS is trying to just get the physical abuse stopped. They’re overwhelmed with physical abuse problems. But there is widespread and evil emotional and psychological abuse that is almost impossible catch because it doesn’t leave visual scars.

There are parents who will starve their children just enough to torture them but not enough to get caught, there parents will put tons of salt in their child’s dinner just so they suffer through the night and won’t let them have anything to drink, their parents who will make children do exercises like wall squats and arm lifts for so long that it’s literal torture and if the child doesn’t agree or stops doing the exercise then they don’t get to eat the next day, there are parents who keep a child up all night “cleaning” the house. I could go on there’s so much and so many. Not to mention the horrible degrading things they say to their child.

And you know what’s really insidious is that a lot of these people are your nicest neighbors, the parent who volunteers, the parent, who comes to school and laughs with the teacher so that the child sees that they have nobody that they can talk to.

Sorry, I’ve just seen a lot. I don’t get to talk about it much because, well it’s depressing. It’s not really a good conversation starter or party banter.

#8

Image source: ChaoticLass, Parker Coffman

It is entirely possible that your veterinarian will kiss your kitten’s belly when you are looking.

#9

Image source: yellinmelin, Kindel Media

Every day the postal service moves over 20 million parcels around the country with a staff of about 500,00, only 200k of those being actual letter carriers. That’s not including every little postcard or advo the thickness of a hair that touches 25 sets of hands and numerous vehicles before it gets to your house without somehow getting lost under a seat cushion along the way. We have a 99.2% success rate on parcel delivery. Nobody thinks about all the hundreds of packages they’ve received, only that one that got lost that one time. USPS is exceedingly good at what they do, and we do it using only proceeds from stamp sales. We do not receive federal dollars in any capacity so that we can remain stable during political upheavals or budget crisis.

200,000 people hand deliver 24,000,000 packages. Double that during peak season. Every. Single. Day. I just think that’s cool as s**t lol.

#10

Image source: LameName1944, Vitaly Gariev

It’s not the strangers/drag queens/LGBTQ people that you, or especially kids, need to worry about. It’s the men in the family. After working 11 years at a crime lab doing DNA, I don’t know if I’ve come across a kid r**e kit with a trans person as the suspect. But there are thousands of them from the dad/stepdad/moms bf/step brother/grandpa/etc. If you want to protect kids, start there.

So, bathroom bills aren’t really protecting kids, just diverting attention from actually threats.

Edit: woah! Really glad this sparked some discussion.

With most every r**e kit comes r**e kit notes (and police report) which tells you relevant info, such as suspect and relation to victim. Rare that it is an “unknown” stranger kid r**e. That’s how I know the relations between the suspect and victim. When we see kid cases, there usually is a listed suspect.

DNA is DNA. “Trans” DNA is not a thing. We can tell s*x by the DNA. So if that doesn’t match up with what’s in the submission info, we look into it. It has happened that we have had trans individuals who are listed as their preferred s*x, which is in contrast to their DNA. That’s something we’d like to know up front cause it matters….cause it’s DNA. Many times it is in the police report.

#11

Image source: SensibleSiren, seventyfourimages

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

mentalissuelol:

Seriously. I’ve met people who take care of patients and are concerningly dumb. I had a travel nurse yell at me for being concerned about a patient’s temperature because he didn’t “feel that cold”. He was hypothermic.

Zealousideal-Low455:

When I was working as a bedside nurse i was shocked and appalled at how many nurses would refuse to escalate a clearly deteriorating situation until it was life threatening. these people were teaching new nurses too.

#12

Image source: Psychological-Try893, Maria Ovchinnikova

You need two coats of paint. The advertisements are lies.

platinumarks:

Or if you’re a low-cost landlord, twenty coats.

#13

Image source: gracebloome, Samuel Ramos

A little air bubble in your IV is completely harmless.

JulietAlfa:

My late hubby had cancer for three and a half years. I remember we’d watch a little air bubble go through the line and he would go “oh noooooo” and then pretend it killed him dramatically. He also once wore a dog cone on his neck to treatment. His nurses loved him. Many came to his memorial including the director of radiation oncology at Rush, they were pals.

#14

Image source: RogueHarpie, Kampus Production

Working in behavioral health taught me that if someone grabs and starts choking your neck all you have to do is grab their thumbs and twist them back. The person will release and you can basically control them just with the thumbs. If someone or something bites you then you “feed the bite”. Push the limb they are biting farther into their mouth will hit the gag reflex and they will stop biting.

#15

Image source: Expensive_Film1144, Cas Holmes

Most modern homes (er, residential construction, inc apts) are built with the cheapest ingredients and I’m not sure they’ll last more than 30 years without requiring a substantial level of exterior refurbishing.

#16

Image source: MyMuselsAMeanDrunk, SpaceX

I work in materials testing for industries like automotive, aerospace, defense…

Our secret? We. Don’t. F**k. Around. Specs are holy writ and *will* be followed. We fire people for cutting corners on paperwork. I once got dragged into a conference room and chewed out for two hours not because I used equipment that was out of calibration, but because I was in the same room as someone who did. *That* person got suspended for a week without pay. We regularly get audited for compliance to standards and regs that are enforced internationally.

Why? Because when people in my field cut corners, people die. Horribly.

Edit: Almost forgot to add…falsifying documents in my line of work is actually a felony.

#17

Image source: Mari-Loki, cottonbro studio

S*x and relationship therapist here – The thing we cannot say, but want to with maybe 50% of couples, is JUST GO GET A DIVORCE ALREADY!

#18

Image source: SafyreSky, alexlucru123

You know how in movies, people take out an old, rare book and immediately are wearing gloves to handle it?

You don’t actually need gloves to handle old books in rare/special collections. Having freshly washed, dried hands is best practice. Why? Because when you wear gloves, it’s more likely you may accidentally rip a page because you can’t feel them as well as you can with bare hands!

The ONLY time we wear gloves is when handling artifacts, mouldy items, poison books (arsenical usually–check out the Winterthur Poison Book Project!), and photographs! And they are NOT the cotton white gloves you see in media. Just a pair of nitrile gloves that fit well!

Also, your old bible is not as rare as you think it is, nor worth as much as you think it is. Same for your book collection. You’d be surprised how many people think the bible they have is super rare when it’s really not! The Bible is like THE most printed book! WE HAVE HUNDREDS OF BIBLES IN OUR COLLECTIONS. STOP GIVING US BIBLES 😭.

#19

Image source: _MooFreaky_, Ev

Not from my current job, but when I was an economist working for the department of housing and having meetings with treasury etc.

It was an open secret that ending homelessness (or, at the very least, all but doing so) was cheaper than not. However, it was deemed political s*****e and not dealt with.

The 2 biggest reasons are, it would take a larger upfront investment (but not as much as you’d think, i’d be recouped rapidly) and governments are notoriously short term thinking as they care about the next election not down the road. So something which gets the biggest results in 4+ years is a no go.

Plus there is a not insignificant, but very influential number of voters who will instantly be turned off by it. Giving people something for free is often seen as a negative by many (I didn’t get it that easy, I worked for my life, low lives leeching on us hard workers, etc) even if it actually benefits them too. Reduced homelessness has a significant ROI for governments and needing to spend less later which means everything is better all around, which benefits everyone.

#20

Image source: lobsterpuppy, Alexei Maridashvili

Librarian here – if you come in to talk to us about book damage or call to give us a head’s up that it’s being returned damage, we will be a lot more amenable to working with you about forgiving damage fines than if you return it and hope we don’t notice.

#21

Image source: NervousVetNurse, Karlo Tottoc

Nobody at the vet is “in it for the money.” The veterinarian is likely the only person in the building making a livable wage. Be kind.

#22

Image source: trucker50, Tony Mrst

A lot of us truckers suffer from soul crushing depression from loneliness and speaking as an owner of my own truck, a lot of us are always one break down from loosing everything 💔

#23

Image source: millipicnic, Caique Morais

The amount of waste that is created in order to fill stores like Walmart and Target with stupid novelty products should make you second guess your buying habits.

AussieMazza:

A friend once said that when buying a product, you should think about its end of life first (e.g. will you donate it, sell it, dispose of it etc)

I now think this way about stuff I buy and try to only buy what I’ll need or will definitely use (and also think about buying things that can be passed on to others when I’m done with them).

If more people thought this way and acted accordingly, the world would be a better place.

My wife and I will generally refer to those novelty or trinket stores as ‘landfill shops’.

#24

Image source: MurseW, National Cancer Institute

Antibiotic resistance is a lot worse than most people know and could eventually result in an extinction-level event.

#25

Image source: Equivalent-Pride-460, Loren King

It’s incredibly dangerous to cut in front of a tractor trailer. We try to keep at least a 2.5 second follow distance because we aren’t able to stop if anything happens suddenly on the road. My gross vehicle combination weight is usually at or around 100,000 lbs. It takes more than a football field length to stop.

#26

Image source: Wilful_Fox, Pixabay

Old people are just like you and me, they are witty, smart, wise, sexual, sarcastic, cynical, generous, considerate, patient, frustrated….all that and more, please treat them with the respect and love you would your best friend, not like a toddler. They may be a little bit deaf or slower to talk than you, but they are not stupid. Oh, and they have a name…it’s not dear, love or darling…use their name!

#27

Image source: MaggieMews, Simon HUMLER

Licensed Massage Therapist. We are genuinely not judging any person’s body. After the first few massages in our career, we literally only see your body as groups of muscles. I hear so often about people not going for massage because of the way they feel about their body…I wish this massage “secret ” would be shared far and wide.

North-Version4944:

And we don’t care if you didn’t shave lol I had so many women apologize for not shaving their legs.

elisun0:

This is so true! I’ve been a licensed massage therapist for a couple decades and I’ve worked on people who easily weigh 300+ pounds. In addition to that I can say that the same body I might think is the hottest person I’ve ever seen, in public, is really just another body once it’s on the table.
Also, I don’t care about shaved legs, gray roots, cellulite, or any other body part you think is too much or not enough. Ditto for that weird, hairy mole you try to keep out of sight.
I just want to know I’m doing the job you hired me for whether that’s relaxing the world away or helping you with painful muscles. When you’re on the table I couldn’t care less what you look like.

#28

Image source: purplecrocs, Kaboompics

Healthcare worker in a hospital setting here (resident physician).

If you go to the emergency department or are hospitalized, call and ask for an itemized bill. It’ll make your actual cost lower since there are otherwise a lot of bs fees. You can also ask to speak to a financial advocate. Your can negotiate for a lower price or see what financial assistance programs or payment plans you can use. Many hospitals also have hardship waivers, waivers for a few days of short-term rehab, or supply for short-term medications. They also have charity care programs and can offer sliding scale discounts.

Regardless of if you have insurance, you can ask about these options. I always share these with patients since I hate the upcharge with a burning passion.

#29

Image source: psycharious, YuriArcursPeopleimages

I work for the department of labor in our state. Yeah, there’s quite a few corrupt employers who will not pay their workers, close up shop, then reopen under a different name, or fraudulently put all their assets under someone else’s name.

NotBradPitt90:

My old boss did this. Before running the restaurant I worked at he was a plasterer and he has over 10 plastering businesses under his name cause he would get payments up front and then just disappear, change business names and do it again.
Me and a bunch of people took his to court for loss of wages at the restaurant and he got forced to pay $300,00 in damages for both workers and suppliers who were owed money. Sadly I never got my $2k back and last I saw he was back plastering. Somehow not in jail.

#30

As a hospital nurse, I’ve been asked more than once by doctors, “Ok….uh…. what do the other doctors usually do for that?”

Doctors who are willing to ask are the good ones. If you have a doctor that never admits they don’t know something, we know they’re one to stay away from.

Image source: Big_Comedian_1259

#31

Image source: 4_Usual_Reasons, Pressmaster

We all talk about what s****y parents you are (if you are) and how much your kids suck because you are raising them to be mirror image a******s.

Working-Tomato8395:

However much we hated the classroom brat, we hated the parents 10x more.

#32

Image source: tc0n4, Wavebreakmedia

Major financial institutions are held up by a very old version of excel.

krdleo96:

THIS! I converted an internship to full time role at my first job because I learnt how to automate a lot of basic excel work using VBA and Python. 6 years since I left that job and they still use the programs I put in place though they now have a couple of engineers to develop it more. Still in the industry and every new place I go to work, this is the quickest way to make myself valuable to the organization.

#33

Image source: Curious_Resolve4641, Anna Shvets

Rinsing your produce with just water knocks down 99% of the bacteria on it. It’s the best thing you can do to prevent food borne illness.

Dane-ish1:

Don’t rinse raw chicken though, it just spreads the salmonella every where.

whydatyou:

Learned this when I was working in restauraunts. the chef was adamant about the prep cooks washing the produce. when I asked why he replied; “you know on those vidoes of people working the fields and picking vegetables? well I never see a porta potty close by.”
been washing vegetables ever since.

#34

Image source: sdbarto, paramount pictures

When there’s a fire the only sprinkler that goes off is where the actual fire is. They don’t all go off like in the movies.

ryguymcsly:

And the water in them is usually so gross you’d wish for the fire.

#35

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.

Don’t rely on verbal recounting when you go to management at work. Document it, print it, and bring it with you. Just saying that you have documented something, especially when it’s multiple things that all point to an issue, management is going to be a lot more cooperative. Sometimes because it shows initiative, calm consideration, and intelligence, but more often because you have the start of a legal case if things go poorly.

Image source: BirdieRosewell