25 People Share The Dirty Little Secrets They Discovered About Their Industries

Secrets lurk within every corner of society, from the everyday person to the high-flying magnates. Each profession harbours its own hidden truths, some too scandalous for public consumption. While transparency is often demanded, there are times when ignorance may indeed be bliss. 

#1 There isn’t a “larger than normal call volume.” We just don’t have enough staff.
Also, your call is not important to us. We actually want you to go away.

Image source: ratdarkness, Antoni Shkraba

#2 IT staff even highly paid ones Google most problems. We are just better at it than you. Given we also understand how to apply what we found but still.

Image source: HeadFit2660, Austin Distel

#3 The education system in America is f****d because of contracted employees.

I work for an organization called Soliant. They own 4 different staffing companies in Special Education. We place special education teachers, speech pathologist, school psychologist, paraprofessionals and such.

We pay our employees 60% of what we charge the schools. On an hourly basis, it’s a bit more than what a government employee could make, and we keep that margin razor thin.

Our executives act like we are doing good work but we are pulling HUNDREDS on millions of dollars out of educator’s pockets and out of schools. We pay lobbying firms to keep it this way as special ed is federally funded.

We aren’t the only firm that does this, but our org is specifically bad because we have 4 sister companies that work together to drive prices up. Our parent company doesn’t care where which of our companies makes the money so we constantly bid up work against our own.

Image source: Pm_me_bush_pics

#4 Work in large scale construction.

Image source: rotyag, Scott Blake

Large developers effectively borrow on the credit of all of the smaller players who are their subcontractors. You have billion dollar companies asking smaller companies to pay for them with a promise to pay later. The larger the developer, the slower the process is to get paid. If a project goes bust, it’s these small guys that get hit because all of the developers have LLC’s that are project specific. No assets to speak of.

#5 Enterprise Rent-A-Car buys their cars straight from the manufacturers at a price lower than dealerships get. After they rent them for a year, they sell them to the public at a price higher than they originally paid.

Image source: w0rx4me, Zakaria Zayane

#6 I own a sign shop, and I can tell you with 100% certainly that almost all businesses fail within the first year. If you think you are going to open a restaurant or a boutique, you are about to lose a bunch of money. Also, no matter what business you want to start, go talk to your local sign guy and ask how many businesses have been in that location and failed. Trust me, we know which locations are cursed.

Image source: windcalmer, Artūras Kokorevas

#7 I worked at a Marriott for several years. I learned the following:

Image source: Clemsoncarter24, cottonbro studio

Bed bugs happen more often than you would think. There’s not much we can do about it. A hotel with frequent international traveler’s is bound to end up with someone who brought something with them in their luggage every now and then(every now and again? I forget which is the proper saying). All we can do is quarantine and clean the room when the problem is discovered.

Those sheets are probably not as clean as you think.

People in the hallway can hear you having sex in your room. Or you watching porn if you don’t wear headphones.

Always flip the bolt-lock on your door. People make mistakes in booking/blocking rooms. I can’t count how many times a room has been double booked which leads to very awkward/angry interactions.

If you had something bad happen to you, or are angry at something you booked not working out, make a bit of a fuss. You can usually get free food/drinks or a free nights stay. Don’t be a d**k about it, accidents happen and its often not the fault of the person you will be interacting with. But hotels bend over backwards in order to not get a bad review. At the hotel I worked at, every review lower than a 9 or 10 was considered a 0. So, get your money’s worth.

Lastly, we can smell the smoke/weed coming from your room. We can also smell it when you leave. We might not be able to do anything about it when it happens. But, you will absolutely be charged for the 1-2 extra nights that the room is unavailable while we clean the stench out. Please stop smoking in the rooms. You’re the only one who can’t smell it. Everyone else can. We know you’re lying. Stop being childish.

#8 I worked in the Casino business, nothing is fixed or shady…you’re just going to lose over time. That’s why there are no clocks in a casino. Longer playing time is the goal. If you win big, they want to keep you there.

Image source: SnakePlisken1981, Kaysha

#9

Image source: Agreeable-Walk1886, Rhodi Lopez

Your loved one looks at peace in their casket but what you don’t know is they have plastic eye caps under their eyelids that are (sometimes, not always) glued shut. There are either wires or sutures holding their mouth together and usually some cotton and a bit of wax on the inside to form that subtle smile. There might be a styrofoam block under their back to make the positioning look more natural and comfortable, there might be styrofoam blocks under the padding to help hold their arms in position. Depending on the case, they’re probably wrapped in plastic garments underneath the clothing provided. There is a LOT of smoke and mirrors in preparation of a decedent.

#10 Don’t want to name names but I used to refurbish phones for a living. The industry is very green-washed, and a lot of the repairs were done shoddily to sell as many phones as possible. I only buy new phones or outlet phones that only have box damage instead of any grade B,C, D phone now. Even grade A can have everything changed to look new but it’s actually worse than B or lower.

Image source: BiggusCinnamusRollus

#11 I work in the medical field.

Image source: StrebLab, Online Marketing

This isn’t really about my field exactly but an adjacent field: health insurance. There is a guy reviewing our notes looking for reasons to deny a claim. The guy reviewing generally has no clinical knowledge whatsoever, but they are looking for certain key works so they can stamp the “denial” on the claim. For this reason, I will omit certain things on the clinical notes if it isn’t directly applicable to what I am treating because I know from experience that they will use that word as in indication that the proposed treatment is “inappropriate” and therefore denied.

#12 This one is fairly well known, but I’m just confirming its truth as some one that used to work in a factory.

Image source: Twat_Womble, Jigar Maru

The brand you buy doesn’t always matter. Sometimes it’s all the same stuff that comes out of the same vats, but just labelled differently and sold at different price ranges.

#13

Image source: SadlyNotDannyDeVito, Pixabay

– People cleaning their underwear in kettles is a huge problem in hotels. We find so many forgotten underpants in the kettels, that I can’t even assume how many we didn’t catch. Don’t use them.
– If you want a nicer room in a hotel, book under Prof. Dr. /your name/. That makes you way more likely to be bumped up.
– When you’re travelling privately, take a card from any hotel testing company with you and give it to the reception when you arrive to enter as the “address for your bill”. Staff will be extra nice to you.
– If you want to steal towels from your hotel, don’t steal them on the day you’re leaving. Just put one in your suitcase day after day and throw the remaining towels on a stack on the floor. Housekeeping will most likely not count them because they don’t have the time and put a full amount of new towels in your room. As long as a full set is there when you’re leaving, you’ll be fine.
– We keep records about who was nice and who wasn’t in our system. If you were nice, you’re more likely to be bumped up.

#14 Engagement ring business here!

Image source: Suspicious-Gear-1736, Jackie Tsang

Oh so many. Most natural diamonds have been in like 2-3 rings before they end up in yours. Rings are made with more fragile designs than they used to be, because after you get tired of it breaking/needing repairs all the time you will buy a new ring, thus giving us more $$$. This is also why the trends nowadays lean towards dainty & minimalistic with a massive stone, bc it’s a ticking time bomb. This is also why a lot of jewelry stores won’t stop you from getting stones that are too soft for daily wear (looking at you, opal). The largest diamond distributor is Walmart. Diamonds that jewelry suppliers discard for being “ugly” end up on JamesAllen and Brilliant Earth. Platinum isn’t necessarily a better metal than gold it actually has just as many (but very different) flaws. We sell it like it’s better bc it’s much more expensive. It’s against the law for a jewelry store to say something is made of diamonds & gold if it’s not, but these laws do not apply to etsy sellers. The average woman’s ring size is a 6, so we sell rings at a 6.5-7 so we can say “oh wow you’re smaller than average teehee”. The people who beat up their rings the most are nurses, teachers, and office workers.

#15 I have a Masters degree in Exercise Science and have worked in the industry for 25 years. 90% of what trainers say and do is fluff and just used to keep you interested and make it sound like they are worth their price.

Image source: discostud1515, Annie Spratt

#16 I worked weddings for a few years, the fact that people would pay upwards of 100-150 dollars a plate is crazy. That food is not worth that much money. In fact the wedding industry as a whole is an insane cash grab and I never knew until I was in it.

Image source: pm-me-ur-ass-pics980, Craig Adderley

#17 I’m no longer shocked by the vast amount of software we all use on a daily basis that is rushed into production, shoddy, insecure, held together with spit and band-aids, etc, etc. I’m amazed everything hasn’t just collapsed into dust already.

Image source: CunningRunt, Alex Fu

#18 Mental health workers are often berated and treated poorly by their employer for having mental health issues.

Image source: FrancieNolan13

#19 [Medicaments] don’t turn into poison the second they expire – most medications are going to be effective for YEARS after they expire. Manufacturers put expiry dates on their stuff to cover their assets – they have to garuntee 95% effectiveness until that date. As long as it isn’t an antiviral or antibiotic, you can probably use it for years after it expires with no issues.

Image source: Nehima123

#20 Printers aren’t smart enough to know the amount of ink / toner is left in the cartridge. They guess based on usage percentages and only know when they are empty. “Low toner” doesn’t mean replacement, it means have one on hand.

Image source: madnhain

#21 Always wash your new clothing before you wear it. Even if it looks fresh and new. It’s been thrown on the floor, moved around a dusty warehouse, tried on by a sweaty post-gym person, and probably sat in a stinky, humid shipping container for 2 months. Plus, you wanna wash off all the starching / finishing products which make it look so “new.”.

Image source: saudela_said, Burgess Milner

#22 I used to work in radio and we totally didn’t take caller 10. We maybe counted 1-6 and then sorted through the callers until we found an excited sounding voice that fit the target demographic.

Image source: theinternetisnice, Skylar Kang

#23 When you send your food back to the kitchen…we fix/remake it and make it right and typically feel bad if it’s our mistake. If it’s the server’s mistake who put it in the ticket, it’s okay if she makes up with it with a round of ice waters, sodas or later on beer. If the customer didn’t understand that a BLT had bacon on it, we still fix it, but call you an idiot.

Image source: CTnaturist, Pylyp Sukhenko

Side note…servers talking to the kitchen will blame the customers (“They said then knew it had bacon in it!”). Servers talking to the customers blame the kitchen (“Ugh, I told the chef no bacon! I aplogize…”) We don’t care, you work for tips, we get paid either way. Here’s your ~~B~~LT.

#24 As a cybersecurity consultant I can tell you many, many companies I have worked with are a “when” they are hacked, not a “if” they are hacked. Some orgs have people in charge of cybersecurity that barely know how basic protocols and technologies work.

Image source: BlackHoleRed, Pixabay

#25 Everyone knows gyms are dirty, but no one knows *HOW* dirty. When you finish a workout, scrub your hands with hot soapy water. Get between your fingers, under your nails, your palms, as if you’ve been touching raw chicken.

Image source: AnakinsAngstFace, Mark Bertulfo