When employees walk out of the building for the last time, they often carry a lot more than a cardboard box with their belongings and goodbye cards. Many are also armed with intimate knowledge of the company's workings, and are sometimes even privy to a few dirty, little secrets.
Despite some having signed contracts preventing them from disclosing what goes on behind closed office doors, more and more people are speaking out about their former workplaces. Social media has become a digital confessional booth, and netizens are not holding back. From gross revelations from the kitchens of popular restaurants, to serious allegations of trafficking, the internet is awash with spilled secrets that were once well hidden by corporate executives.
Someone recently asked, "What’s a company secret you can share now that you don’t work there anymore?" And the responses might surprise you. Bored Panda has compiled a list of some of the most eyebrow-raising ones. Do you have tea on your former employer? Let us know in the comments below...
#1
Macy’s employees have a code of the day, SOMETIMES, where they can choose to give you a little further discount if you’re nice to them and not a total a*s.
I used to work there, and before that, I couldn’t figure out why they kept selling me stuff at a higher discount than advertised.
But I’ve worked retail and waitressed a lot, and I’m always friendly with clerks/waitresses, etc. cause it is a freakin hard job. It’s not the tasks that are so hard; as much as the long hours on your feet, and customers being very mean sometimes.
Image credits: maineCharacterEMC2
If you've ever held down a job, you might be familiar with what's known as a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). They're also sometimes called confidentiality agreements (CAs), confidential disclosure agreements (CDAs), and proprietary information agreements (PIAs).
Either way, they're legally binding contracts that prevent someone from sharing certain types of information. Often, the agreement deals with intellectual property, client data, trade secrets, internal practices, compensation details, or HR complaints.
But in recent years, NDAs have come under scrutiny and even been challenged in court. "They prevented many people who settled #MeToo claims from discussing their situations, which some argue suppressed necessary information that could bring impermissible behavior to light," notes Thompson Reuters. "This situation has led to stricter scrutiny of non-disclosure agreements, making it all the more critical that they are drafted with great specificity and used judiciously."
In 2022, the U.S. Congress passed the Speak Out Act, which prohibits NDAs from blocking employees from discussing certain acts of misconduct in the workplace.
#2
[Note: United States centric] Some d**g companies that make lifesaving medications know that your choice is to pay them or die. And they price their d***s accordingly. It's not about the years of research or the investment in production facilities—in most cases 80–95% of the research was done via government grants (thanks NIH!, we'll miss ya!) and production facilities are usually in low-cost countries. It's all about people being willing to pay anything to not die screaming.
Simple_Song8962:
I'm taking a new drug to treat my leukemia. It's 4 capsules daily for 24 months. It retails for $16,000 per month. That's close to $400,000 for the full 24-month treatment.
Image credits: booksandcats4life
NDAs tend to act as a psychological tool to dissuade employees from speaking out and they are effective at achieving that goal, notes Integrity Online. But the legal documents don't always stop people from spilling the beans. If you're planning to do so, experts advise that you proceed with caution.
"While NDAs are not typically binding when it comes to reporting criminal activity or information in the public interest, employees are nevertheless advised to consult a legal professional before speaking out," reads the Integrity site. "This could take the form of a lawyer or legal firm specialised in whistleblowing who can thoroughly analyse and evaluate the NDA, as well as any aspects of the agreement that could prove problematic in court."
#3
I once worked for a polling company, the kind that runs surveys for elections and marketing purposes. I learned that numbers can be made to prove anything remotely plausible and to not trust election polls when they are too tight.
Image credits: StockKaleidoscope854
The experts at Integrity Online explain that in the event of obvious wrongdoing such as when a worker points out a serious health and safety violation to the relevant authority, it would constitute a good faith breach of an NDA, which would not result in repercussions.
"Alternatively, neglecting internal processes, bypassing the relevant authorities and blowing the whistle via the media in an attempt to slander the employer would be a bad faith breach of the NDA that could result in legal action," they warn.
#4
Skip the chili at 7-11. No one ever changes it.
usual7:
Can confirm. I worked there for several months, and I never touched it.
Image credits: anon
#5
TJ Maxx makes employees shuffle clothes around so customers have to search through everything for different sizes of a particular clothing item or matching sets of suits.
Image credits: Choice-Marsupial-127
#6
The United States military spends so much money on useless stuff. We would spend $200 on a single bolt I can get a 20-pack at Home Depot for $8.
Image credits: anon
#7
IBM is a traitorous company.
They routinely lay off whole teams of their American employees, keeping just a single token worker to interface with the client while outsourcing the rest of the work to H-1B visa holders or teams in India via remote work.
Image credits: Feeling-Attention43
#8
I work in public service. I don't know if I'd call it a dirty secret, but when the government started stocking men's rooms with free pads/tampons we all agreed to turn a blind eye to the one trans dude taking them all regularly and dropping them off at the local homeless shelter. He's the only one affected, and he's keeping homeless women well-supplied on the government's dime.
Image credits: smellymarmut
#9
Health insurance companies will deliberately and intermittently slow down or completely stop claims processing to hang onto their money longer.
They also have days where they reject en masse across the board because it allows them to not pay out for an additional 30 days or maybe never pay if the claim is not resubmitted.
True stories.
Image credits: Due_Reading_3778
#10
Recycling is a lie. I won't say no one ever recycles anything anywhere. I'm just saying that when you take the time to put a plastic bottle in the blue bin or whatever, all you're doing is making yourself feel a little better. It's ending up right next to all that paper trash you walked by in the end.
Image credits: AmethystStar9
#11
A lot of tech consulting firms in the US are running immigration/trafficking schemes. They sponsor people to come over from India, or students who graduate and are about to lose their student visas. They do grunt IT work with ridiculous hours and little to no pay. I’ve even seen the students family pay the company to sponsor their child and have them work for free until they find a paying job.
Image credits: Illustrious_Dust_0
#12
A s**tload of auto parts are made on the same line and are the same thing. If you are looking at three different brands of say brake pads and there’s not a difference in materials (say one is ceramic) it’s very possible they are all the same thing and came from the same factory. I worked for a company that made the parts going on the new car, the official replacement parts from the manufacturer, and more than four different aftermarket brands and they all came off the same line.
Image credits: Kanye_X_Wrangler
#13
Chipotle loves to portray itself as fresh.
In reality, they serve leftovers. Everything at the end of the day is saved, and heated back up the next day. So, if you go in the evening, you're much more likely to get steak that was just cooked whereas if you're in the early part of the lunch rush, you're getting yesterday's leftover steak heated back up in a warmer.
Image credits: seriousfrylock
#14
When I worked in a service department at a car dealership I noticed a lot of recalls, so I said to my boss, “I have a conspiracy theory, I think all the recalls are made up just to get costumers in the shop so we can sell them more stuff” My boss replied with, “that’s no conspiracy theory”.
Image credits: timothytuxedo
#15
Major companies patent new technology they have no interest in developing just so others can’t develop it.
Image credits: artofdrink
#16
Walmart's off brands are made by name brands.
Also, many managers cheat on their spouses with their subordinates; plural not singular.
Image credits: IamJacks5150
#17
I work in a plastic bag plant. Everything in here runs on electricity. The owners tapped into a power line that runs through the property and for more than 10 years they didn't pay a dime. They made tens of millions. When the fraud was found out they blamed an employee (who was from latin america) and were given a 200K fine. You can't find the story online any more, they used their community connections to have it erased. And flat out deny it ever happened.
Who says "crime doesn't pay"?
Image credits: dirtybird971
#18
I used to work in the hotel industry and a lot more people die in hotels than get publicized.
Image credits: TraditionalTackle1
#19
No longer employed there, but when I worked at a certain big box retailer of home improvement products we would occasionally see hopeful strangers sitting in our lobby with boxes or other packaging waiting for meetings. These people were small-time inventors of new products and were trying to get them on the shelves of our retail locations. What they didn't know is that, as condition for consideration of carrying the product, they would be required to turn one or more samples over to the company to be examined by the product teams. If the product showed promise, one of those samples would be shipped to another country where it would be thoroughly dissected and analyzed so that an equivalent product could be developed under the house label (with enough modifications to not infringe on any patents, of course) and *that* product was what would end up on the shelf. From what I heard, a lawsuit pretty much ended the practice and now they don't allow pitches from independent producers any more. They just wait to see what other retailers are already carrying (and selling well) and copy those.
Image credits: Jackieirish
#20
We're shipping dangerously corrosive chemicals across the country in tanks that have repeatedly failed safety inspections.
Very few get pulled over, so it's cheaper for the company to pay the fines instead of repairing the tanks or buying brand new ones. And with all the slashes to funding, firings, and relaxation of environmental regulations, it's getting even easier to do so.
Image credits: 80s_dystopia_is_now
#21
Don’t ever buy anything marinated from a butcher/meat case. It is how the older meats are sold, the marinade covers the smell.
Image credits: Big-Melvin
#22
I used to work for a company that run check on medicine secondary effects.
And buckle up for the big secret.
The truth is... Homeopathy does not have any known secondary effect.
Because it doesn't have a f*****g primary effect.
#23
The whole point of an "extended warranty" is to get the car in the shop and find things wrong that aren't covered by the warranty.
iwtsapoab:
Similar to my neighbour getting ‘free’ oil changes with her new Toyota. Every time she brought it in for the ‘free’ oil change they would find something else and fix it instead. Maybe drain some fluid maybe fix some plugs. I kept telling her, if your car is brand new why the hell are they having to do all of this maintenance on it - that doesn’t make any sense at all. She just wouldn’t admit that she was getting ripped off every time so her ‘free’ oil changes always cost her almost $400 every time she went in.
Image credits: SinamonChallengerRT
#24
Expired food products that haven’t sold are often mixed with new products at a specified ratio. It‘s called rework.
cabronfavarito:
Ughh I worked in a meat room and the chicken that didn’t sell would have to be taken off the shelf after 3 days. Sounds cool but where does it go after? To the garbage? Nope! It was sent to the seasoning room to be repackaged as freshly seasoned chicken and people would actually buy it.
The seasoning masked the smell most times but after day two of that fresh chicken being on the shelf it smelled fucking rancid. Any chance I get to tell customers not to buy the seasoned meat, I would.
Image credits: GB715
#25
I sang opera professionally for a long time. The amount of sexual harassment and a*****t that is not only overlooked but excused is absolutely abhorrent.
When Domingo was called out, I had a colleague who furiously defended him. Her argument was that he was always nice to her. Well, he must be a good dude, then, if he was nice to one lady who was close to his age and was already an established artist! He preyed on young women early in their career, d*****s.
Our old general director didn’t give two s***s about most of the artists and would repeatedly hire one particular conductor who groped a colleague onstage. It’s getting a little better, but it’s far, far too slow.
Image credits: susanreneewa
#26
I worked for a medical research company. All those research methods that they're not supposed to do because it's illegal here? yeah, they just go to other countries to do that. I had to take care of the machine that had all the research and information on the experiments they were doing in South America.
Image credits: wearelegion1134
#27
I work in a manufacturing-related industry. We tout how much effort we're putting into making our consumer products "eco-friendly" and "green"- which really does have an impact - but the amount of waste our day-to-day operations generate is staggering. When I was working from home during Covid, receiving samples and contracts and other documents to review and sign, I was filling up 4-5 big trash bags PER WEEK with all the plastic shippers and Styrofoam padding that came along with those. Imagine that x100 people doing similar work across the org.
Now that we're back in office, we have to have trash collection come by multiple times a day. And this doesn't even touch on how many next-day international air shipments we send back and forth, how many pieces the factories scrap due to small defects, and how many unsold products go straight to the landfills after languishing in a climate controlled warehouse for a year.
I guess the point I'm getting at is: trying to reduce your personal carbon footprint is a noble goal. Don't abandon it! But real change will have to come from holding corporations accountable for the waste they generate.
#28
The NYPD downgrades crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and makes every attempt to not even take a report for serious crimes. If there's no report, the crime isn't counted , hence, it never occurred. This is how high-level bosses get promoted, and politicians get re-elected.
Yes, there is a quota. Cops have a certain number of arrests and summonses they need each month. If they don't hit the expected number, they get broken up from their steady partner, their tour is changed, they get s****y assignments, and ultimately get highway therapy, which is getting assigned as far from their home as possible.
UN members have diplomatic immunity from ANY crime. We are to take no police action as to avert an international conflict. The UN members know this
Hey, ask me anything.
#29
A shocking number of retail stores force new employees to watch anti-union propaganda videos during orientation.
Also, to whom it may concern, products that claim to be made in the USA are actually just *assembled* in the USA. The parts are still manufactured elsewhere.
#30
When it comes to delis (i worked in a few supermarkets), even if the company has strict policies, rest assured that there's always a few employees not following the food safety rules.
Cross-contamination is a constantly broken rule, I have seen people open meats with box cutters they keep in their pockets that they use for an indefinite amount of time (weeks, months). They will drop entire hams on the ground and quickly pick them up, hoping no one notices. Those are NOT clean floors.
Some won't change their gloves for hours. They'll be in the back throwing garbage out or having a smoke, or they'll clean the deli using nasty broomsticks and mophandles, and jump right back on the line and cut your cold cuts for you.
Image credits: NewDaysBreath
#31
The Disney College Program is just a pixie dust coated excuse for cheap labor. I was a Professional Intern with the company and saw this first hand.
Interesting_Tea5715:
This. My wife did the internship at Disney World. They totally exploit young professionals.
You get no time off and they are crazy strict about breaks. My wife would ask for a break when it was extremely hot and they wouldn't give it to her. She had several cases where she thought she was gonna pass out in the Florida heat.
This was about 15 years ago though, so things may have changed.
Image credits: Visual_Counter_4897
#32
I’m an over the road truck driver. The company I used to work for used to make us unplug our electronic logging system in order to make deliveries on time. Didn’t matter to them if we had to drive 16-18 hours a day without sleep. For reference we are only permitted by federal law to drive 11 hours a day then we have to take a 10 hour break.
#33
The Italian restaurant on Whittier blvd recycles empty bottles of fine wine. They keep the expensive label / bottle, but refill it with $10 wine. 20 years ago they would refill it with $2 bottle of Charles Shaw.
Image credits: tanlinesoutside
#34
Everything from panera is frozen, bread dough isn’t mixed on site, all the sweet treats are frozen, smoothies are made from a very syrupy purée, no fresh fruit at all.
#35
Big box stores throw away obscene amounts of trash. You could build a house every week with the materials thrown away at each Home Depot and Lowe’s.
#36
I worked at Blockbuster Video. When it was slow, I would randomly think of people I knew or who I used to run around with and type in their names to see if they had any late fees. Then I’d take care of them by deleting them. I once erased $32 in late fees accumulated by my pastor at church. 😂.
#37
The reason your prior authorization for your surgery or imaging didn’t go through was because the hospital submitted it late.
marshdd:
Or they sent the wrong code. My standard colonoscopy was coded as following up on a problem. It was not!! Had to call hospital and have it resubmitted. $1,500!
#38
Probably well-known by this point, but Best Buy only really wants to sell credit cards and warranties. I could sell an entire home theater system and still catch s**t for not convincing them to get a credit card/warranty.
#39
As a long-time probation officer, one thing that surprises people is how many **unusual**, "creative" sentences we have to enforce. Most people think such sentences are banned by the 8th amendment but that's...not really how that works. For one, most of the time the offender takes the plea deal for the unorthodox sentence willingly to avoid prison, so they never appeal on 8th amendment grounds anyways since that would just result in re-sentencing and going to prison.
Occasionally such sentences make the news, but many don't.
The most notable one I worked was in 2016, which did make the news, when a woman was being sentenced for a serious case of animal neglect. The judge gave her a choice - incarceration, or spending a day sitting in the "stinkiest, smelliest part of the county dump" to see how it feels to live in filth.
She chose the latter. We had to contact the dump and say "hey, judge's orders - help us find the absolutely most revolting place here." They didn't believe us until we showed them the paperwork.
I took it seriously and found the nastiest place there for her. By the end...I think she was wishing she'd taken the jail time.
Image credits: KyleD2000
#40
I'm a handyman. Contractors' favorite saying is "Can't see it from *my* house." You ever see those videos from home inspectors pointing out all the crooked or broken s**t in brand new construction? It's because the builders don't f*****g care. And then once all the cracks start forming in your walls they go "oh that's just the house settling." Nope, they built it s****y in the first place and now their shoddy work is shining through.
#41
Coffee farms across the world have child labor. There is no farm in a third world country that doesn't have generational families picking the coffee. Children, adults, grandparents.
The reason companies pay for Organic Labels is that the photos are vetted by this label organization to filter out any children in the photos for the PR, and the label itself is a way to artificially raise the price of coffee. The organic labels have no benefits to the coffee or tea industry because it doesn't sway consumers in any way to buy the products in a meaningful manor that "votes with their dollars". Literally Organic just means coffee/tea companies add an additional layer of tracking to their products during purchase and production. There has never been a recall of organic coffee or organic tea in the entire industry for adulteration. All recalls have been due to other containments at the packaging such as blood, bandaids, etc. never has it been recalled because "non-organic coffee was put in an organic bag".
So when you buy normal non organic coffee or tea, you are buying the same coffee and tea as you would get in Organic. You just pay a higher "premium" price for organic.
Even when I worked in a small coffee roaster in the PNW, organic green was $1.50 a lb and regular green was $1.35 lb. When you put the labor, roasting, bag and label costs together both came to $3.50/lb. But retail sold regular at $16/lb and Organic at $35/lb.
Also, another tidbit, coffee is shipped and contains glass and metals in every green sack. It's literally dried on the ground and swept and raked multiple times and gets in bags. It transfers from multiple small farms to a community like broker center where it gets rebadged and sold, and that happens maybe 1 or 2 more times until it gets to the international market. It goes through magnets and screenings several times to filter it out before, and after roasting. Sometimes twice over. I've also seen snakes come in shipments. But we found glass, nails, bottle caps, batteries, once we found bullets, and commonly we found corn. Corn would always make its way into the roaster and burn with the chaff.
#42
Enterprise rent a car.
D**g dealers would rent the cars so they could maneuver around places without getting their license plates run.
Also, ppl would rent the same make and model of their existing cars and steal parts like tires and return the rentals during off-hours.
Pretty ingenious if you ask me.
#43
How car dealers charge up to $2000 for “paint protection” that costs them $99.
#44
Large bookstore chain: People would take magazines off the rack and bring them to the restroom to read. Sometimes Playboy and the like, sometimes others. They'd often leave them on the floor of the restroom. After closing, we had to go in there, pick up the magazines, and put them back on the sales rack. (Probably not really a thing anymore since magazine aren't really a thing-- this was a long time ago.).
#45
That made in the USA clothing can be considered made in the USA if they are only printed here or the label only sewn in.
#46
Home Depot cashier can give you a discount of up to 50$ for no reason, anything above 50$ needs a manager's approval.
#47
It wasn't me personally, but a bank wanted to do a direct marketing campaign to their top richest customers.
The letter draft had a placeholder instead of the client names, while they were working on getting the letter right.
The placeholder was Dear 'Rich B*****d'.
You can guess what happened next.
Yup, the mail merge didn't work properly, and they all went out like that...
#48
I work in Lab testing high fructose corn syrup. You’ll be surprised how much bacteria, yeast, mold, and metal pieces Coca Cola and Pepsi allow in!
Image credits: ColdWar82
#49
Multinational pizza chain infamous for low quality.
A local luxury hotel contracted us to provide their room service pizzas. We charged them $6+$2 tip per pizza, and we would deliver to the back entrance of the hotel in a plain white pizza box.
We would normally charge $10 for the same pizza, they were selling it for $28.
Our drivers loved it when they'd get multiple room service orders, plus a couple of direct-to-room orders. Raking in the tips to drive 2 blocks away.
#50
Cold Water Creek. 50% off everything in the store sale - Certain items (high end jewelry) was removed from the store during the sale.
Immediate_Result_896:
I’ve noticed this at other stores. I’ve watched for an item I liked at a store to go down in price. I visit the store during a special storewide promotion and that item is missing that day. Then I returned to the same store the next day after the promotion is over, and the item mysteriously reappeared where I had seen it all along.
#51
Among the many things I've done in my career, I've spent a fair bit of time in cyber security so ...
Even companies that try really, really hard to protect your private information cannot. The bigger they are, the bigger the risk.
I cannot say this loudly enough. DO NOT bank or do financial stuff on your phones. Just don't. Do them on a PC/Mac you keep patched and up to date and only on a network connection your control - like your own well secured WiFi or better still a hard wired connection. Never do anything sensitive on a public network.
Ditto plugging in to charge a device. Get a dongle for your charging cable that disconnects your data lines so that the only thing it will do is charge your device. There are well documented exploits where people think they are just plugging in their phone for a quick charge and their data gets drained. I use one of these anytime I travel anywhere.
in airports, coffee shops, even on plane and train charging ports.
Ditto "free" services and apps. When it's free to you they are selling, harvesting, analysing YOU and your patterns of behavior. Tik-Tok, FB, BlueSky, Twitter/X, Instagram, et all - ALL of them - are snooping through your data. (And so does Reddit.)
I'm am not paranoid, I promise you. I have just seen how pervasive the tentacles of cyber intrusion are. At least companies like X and Reddit have profit motive and thus a motive to keep you happy, but the Bad Guys do not.
EDIT: Several people asked about data blocking dongles. Here's an example. You don't have to get this specific one, only something that does the same thing:
https://www.amazon.com/PortaPow-3rd-Data-Blocker-Pack/dp/B00T0DW3F8.
#52
My company will hire you solely based on physical attraction.
My boss has told me that he feels if there are young attractive females in the office more employees will want to come in because they’ll want to flirt/talk with these girls.
#53
I work in a grocery store. We don't clean the lids of the yogurt or sour cream tubs if the lid falls off. We just put it back on the product. It can fall on the floor, in a puddle of milk, doesn't matter. At most, we might wipe it off on our apron or with a paper towel if available.
Bulk produce items do fall on the floor regularly. We just pick them up and put them back on the shelf if it isn't damaged. If a container of berries or tomatoes pops open, we'll just put them all back in and put it back on the shelf. Nothing is rinsed off first.
Almost nothing is actually made in the bakery. Everything either comes in already made or in portioned pieces of dough they throw into the oven. The only thing they really do is decorate cakes, donuts, bread, and bagels. Even most of the cakes come in with icing already on them. They just add some extra decorations.
All of the seafood comes in frozen and is kept frozen even though the sign says never frozen. In fact, the seafood people will grab bags of frozen shrimp off the shelf and put it in the display case. You are literally paying more for some thawed out shrimp.
#54
Work as a gardener, but specialise in Invasive Species Remediation. It's ridiculously unregulated and underpaid for what is incredibly dangerous work. My main thing is H. mantegazzianum (giant hogweed), and I've saw people treating it in shorts and a tshirt, the sap is phototoxic and can cause 3rd degree burns in sunlight for up to 7 years. I would happily do the paperwork and additional licencing if it meant untrained and underequiped people weren't risking life changing injuries for a few hundred quid.
#55
UK Universities get most of their money from the tuition fees of overseas students. They will accept weak applicants and overlook poor performance if it means the overseas tuition money keeps rolling in.
#56
I worked at a clothes donation sorter/exporter for cash under the table. All of those donation bins you see in parking lots with different charities written on them, the bins are all owned by one company who donates a tiny percentage to charity to be able to use the charity name. All clothes and shoes are exported to Africa for profit, everything else is trash and goes in the garbage (toys, books, art, digital media, electronics). The company was run by 4 fairly recent immigrants and every single one of them had a late model car and owned property in a very HCOL area.
They did allow the employees to pick through and take any and all rejects however which allowed me to have a thriving side hustle flipping games movies and toys for the few years I worked there.
#57
Some schools don't let students with special needs take standardized tests because it'll bring down their overall scores which means less funding.
#58
I worked at a hotel that's NOT a major chain like Marriott or Hilton, just an independent hotel. Housekeeping would change the sheets and towels between guests, but not the comforters. The comforters would go right back on the bed, unwashed between guests. The only time they'd change them out was if there was a noticeable stain or something on them. So in theory a comforter could go months, used by dozens of people, before it ever gets changed out. I doubt this is standard in most hotels, but I always think about it when in one.
#59
Some people in pharma really don’t care what we do. Some are even anti pharma/meds. Some go into manufacturing sites without washing their hands. Some people don’t test and give approvals without testing/reading. Majority really do their best to make good meds, the small minority ruin it for everyone.
#60
It should probably be obvious if you take the time to think about it. But the ancient fossils you see in museums are usually replicas moulded from the original, not the fossil itself. They are too rare and valuable to leave out on display just like that.
There are exceptions. Usually behind glass or otherwise out of reach.
#61
I’ve been criticized for speaking about this because people don’t like the truth. Worked at Costco and they would relabel their meat and deli products to extend the dates. Also, there was a weight “goal” on some items that were charged by weight. So they would take one unit that was within that weight and use it to continuously print out labels and slap on units that had different weights. Some of the choice steaks were labeled prime to they would be able to charge more.
#62
Back when I worked at a major hardware store chain, we had a battery recycling program. People could bring in their batteries to be "properly recycled or disposed of." ... I'll give you one guess what we were told to do with them.
#63
All jewelry and watches are perversely marked up. Here it goes :
A one carat round diamond retailing for $10k at the store is purchased wholesale at $1k. Shop around and purchase pre own jewelry, remove the stone and purchase a new economical setting. Blue nile or Costco has the same cut, color , clarity like the high end stores. Shop around a lot.
Watches: Rolex cost less than $500 to make. The material is hyped up stainless steel and recycled stones and traded in material. The submariner that now retails $11k cost that much to make. It's not unique, its mass produced and the crystal, bezel, always get scratched, don't hit the case because it will dent and disrupt the movement. Don't believe the story from the salespeople. We were trained to BS clients like : we don't know how many are made, we dont know how the serial numbers are assigned, we have no idea how many Daytonas exist, your watch has a born date, your watch will increase in value.
Cartier watches: beautifully designed, same as Rolex to produce, uses cheap ETA movement costs $18.
Any gold jewelry purchased will only get gold value when traded in. So if you purchase a designer necklace for $15k, you're only getting gold weight if you sell it. And it depends on the gold if 14k. 18, 24k,
Jewelry is marked up high because execs have to justify their bloated salaries, over head, insurance and sales commissions for their salespeople.
You're better off investing your money in the SP500, real estate, or a certificate in your industry.
#64
We don’t have more in the back.
#65
I worked for a petrochemical engineering company. One of the designers noticed a flaw that if two people in two different parts of a specific plant each opened a specific valve at the same time it would cause a bad thing to happen. When he brought it up to higher ups that they needed to address it they told him don't open the valves together. A few years later it happened and there was a kind of big explosion and fire. Engineers all had to sign an NDA but I wasn't an engineer so I never was told to sign one.
#66
Most people know by now that Target likes to let you steal long enough to build a case against you. What you don't understand is just how high-end their security camera system is. It's actually scary.
They had cameras that could zoom in to such a degree, with such clarity, that even with a bad angle, they could zoom in so much as to have a single letter from your license fill the monitor. They could see the blackheads and pores on your nose or the fibers that make up the paper of the money being used. They could tag you with one camera and all other cameras could track you as you walked through the store, even the waist-height ones. Once again, this was 20+ years ago. I can't imagine how advanced it is now.
Tldr. Don't steal from Target.
#67
I was once placed at a company that made a popular dandruff shampoo and when I got there, the guy I was replacing was really just doing stupid a*s data entry and chatting with everyone there. No real lab work was done which is what I was hired to do. When I told the temp agency this, they sent my replacement that afternoon and didn’t tell me. I got sent to greet them at the gate and then was called by the agency. Temp agencies don’t give a flying f**k what you think you’ll be doing. They just want their money.
#68
The carving station at old country buffet is coached to ask you questions learned on a video. They don’t actually care if you watched the game last night.
#69
The casino I worked at reportedly made 9mil a weekend in each slots and table games. They don’t care about you.
#70
I worked at Electronics Boutique back when they had computer desktop games. We were allowed to take a game home, load it on our computer with the licensing code and all, play the game, and then take the item back to work to be re-shrink-wrapped and sold. The manager said if we try the games we’d be good at selling them.
#71
My ex-company, a big multinational, had me run database queries to list all the employees who would be vesting stock next month so they could fire some of them to save the money. They assumed I wouldn't put two-and-two together and notice names from the list getting fired.
#72
Lot of the consultants I worked with were presented to clients as subject matter experts when they really didn't know anything.
Basically learn on the job.
#73
The people who do your taxes at national chains (H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, etc.) are normal people who were hired for a seasonal job, put through a quick training, & follow a program to file your taxes. And the founder of Liberty Tax was also the founder of Jackson Hewitt until he was forced out for… activities.
#74
Every Southwest plane is covered in the most crude and offensive graffiti inside the cargo hold.
#75
Something many people already know but in case you don't; HR is there for the company, not you.
#76
There is a school in Texas that was supposed to have fire doors installed, but the contractors knowingly installed regular doors instead. There are buildings in Louisiana that aren't up to fire code, but the owner pays the Fire Marshal to look the other way.
#77
As a teacher, sometimes I don’t have time to grade this s**t and everyone gets 100s.
#78
I worked for a couple of software companies. QA testing is c**p. Also, the bugs you reported probably won't be fixed.
People complain about Microsoft and other big software companies but they and their products are wonderful compared to vertical market software.
#79
You really, really don’t want to know about the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of many food service businesses. Things may have changed in 30 years but I doubt it.
#80
A local politician got in trouble for doing a*****e stuff. Turns out he was employed by my company and no one had ever heard of him. He was a "consultant" that used his position in government to steer contracts to the company.
It was wild, we had protests demanding we fire him at our front door. He suddenly appeared on our telephone number list for a day and then they scraped it all and "laid him off".
#81
I'm scientist and I work and pretty well-known institution that houses a lot of scientists that are very popular with the public, particularly folks on Reddit and the like.
Pretty much every one of these guys, and they are all guys, are the most disgusting, insupportable lechers. I have had to intervene so many times on behalf of female graduate students and postdocs who are getting really harassed. And, generally, nothing happens to these men.
Finally, after literally decades of an institutional culture like this, a few scientists were let go after they committed criminal offenses that had physical evidence and witnesses. Even then, it was only after months and months of paid leave for them. And I just saw one of these guys back the other day, so I guess even that didn't stick.
Your hero is probably one of these guys.
#82
I mean, it's not "dirty", nor really is it a "secret", but ...
The hamburgers (meat patties) that don't sell at Wendy's, get taken off the grill and go right into a container in the refrigerator below the grill. Those become tomorrow's chili!
The chicken in the chicken sandwiches that does not sell, those go into tomorrow's crispy chicken salads.
Back when Wendy's had salad bars, the buns that didn't sell today, became tomorrow's garlic bread.
#83
I've worked in education for over 15 years now. Not as a teacher but in various support positions.
Schools and school districts have tons of creative ways to juice their school grades, graduation rates, test score averages. Many of those involve recommending failing students enroll at alternative education charters, home education and private schools.
It's practically an open secret, and every spring you get waves of seniors who meet with guidance counselors and are recommended these options.
This is why I don't place much value education rankings.
#84
I work in dementia care, your grandparents get really creative with the old swear words when their less inhabited and they have the greatest sense of humour.
#85
Companies are willing to hold onto insurance agents who do illegal or unethical stuff as long as they keep bringing in new business. Makes me sick how I've seen blatant ethical and legal violations in this industry, just for the sake of people selling a policy- and the company protects them simply because they make the company money .
#86
There’s a few potentially life changing d***s that aren’t even in clinical trials because nobody wants to invest in figuring out how to produce them. I’m not trying to be a downer on the industry, but most of the grant and research money goes into the steps preceding production, so it’s a weirdly common roadblock.
#87
You ever watch your parents try and struggle to use a computer? Watch them fumble with a notebook full of passwords? Yeah, those same people have positions of authority at nearly every major company, and have access to customer data.
Even though there are processes in place to protect customer data, none of that really matters when the VP of WhateverTheFuck is a boomer with a post-it note containing their password stuck to their monitor for all to see.
Extra credit answer: companies spend billions of dollars on major infrastructure to run the business... but at the end of the day, the foundation of all that infrastructure at every Fortune 500 company is a bunch of Excel workbooks.
#88
There is a certain Russian steel company that operates in North America and the North American arm says that it operates independently from Russia. Total BS. There are daily emails and weekly reports that go to Moscow.
#89
Wild Bills Tobacco will randomly make us stop selling coils for vape mods to make customers buy new mods every so often. Used to be a manger of a store of theirs and they will just tell us they stopped selling a certain coil and tell us to upsell a different mod instead.
#90
Very sensitive medical information that has been printed out and thrown away is handled by people who are barely aware of privacy laws related to medical records. Also nurses occasionally throw used uncapped syringes in the regular trash and it's gross.
#91
The secret sauce at Bronco Burger is just ketchup and mayonnaise.
#92
It’s not fair for American workers that are highly skilled to be displaced and laid off working for the big 4 accounting firms with H-1B holders and the big 4 pays for the attorney fees for the green card process…there I said it being on the HR side.
#93
I worked at State Farm. They try to convince all customers to get Drive Safe and Save device that monitors your driving and gives you a discount for having it. What they don’t tell you is that after the initial discount for 99% of normal drivers the “discount” for having the app goes down to 1% (basically nothing). So at the very least you are pimping out your data for basically nothing and at the worst your rates will go up. Most people always saw an increase after the first policy period.
#94
The quality of snacks in ER EMS lounges influences which hospital paramedics bring you to, if you don't have a preference and aren’t dying.
#95
Used to work at an office that prided itself on winning awards for being "environmentally friendly". The awards hung behind the front desk and they would bug employees every day about how hard it was to get the achievement. One year, they designated me as the "environmental rep" and I would fill out the application for the award. I found out that getting a passing grade was shockingly easy. For instance:
- A large portion of the questions asked how much we recycle. Our office had recycle bins but our landlords threw that stuff back in the trash when they picked it up. Don't need to mention that on the form.
- Like at least 10% - 20% of questions didn't understand what our company did so we marked those as 'NA'
- Vastly overstate your contributions. If a prompt asked if you ever returned lots of product you didn't use, describe it as so even if its just returning one item at Target
- Shift responsibility. "no that wasn't us throwing away dumpsters of material, it was just the contractor we're paying so we're not going to mention that"
- Easiest of all when a question says "rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10..." always give 10s as long as you didn't have to back up the claim.
#96
Bankers fake the numbers on business loan applications $50 K and under so the businesses can get a higher line of credit. Rule of thumb is they will loan 10% of your gross sales. Customer tells you his sales are $300 K. You write his sales are $500K and he gets a line of $50K instead of $30k. Banker has and extra $20K towards his sales goals and commission incentives.
