Recently, I did a post about people on Reddit who were sharing the alleged "dirty secrets" of the job industries they work in.
Well, the post also got a lot of comments from our own readers who decided to share some of the things they've learned about their job industries that they felt other people should know, too.
So I decided to put together a post with some of their comments, as well as adding new ones from the original Reddit thread. Below are 27 more "dirty secrets" people are revealing about their job industries:
1. "We touch your food with our hands. Weird. And yes, we wash them so often that they might fall off. That, or you get a-holes that wear gloves for 12 hours and never change gloves or wash their hands."
2. "I've worked in movie theaters for a few years. Of course, we make popcorn, but there is also a spray that has a popcorn scent that we use in the lobby. I suppose it's to entice customers to buy popcorn but really, we would use it if we accidentally burned a batch and the spray would cover it up 😅."
3. "ALWAYS wash clothing you have bought before wearing anything. This is not limited to just stuff you order online but clothing purchased in-store as well. The vast majority of clothing is chemically treated to prevent mildew and bugs during overseas shipping. And to be perfectly honest, what you buy in-store is likely much nastier than something from online that someone might have tried on and returned, most of those clothes have been tried on by multiple people, some of whom don’t bother wearing any undergarments during the process, and everything has been dropped on a dirty sales floor at least a few times."
4. "Microsoft Excel runs the country."
5. "When I worked as a concierge for a very popular hotel chain and whenever a guest checked in we would ask for their info so we could 'look up their gifts,' when we were actually running a soft credit check on them to see if they could go to the time share presentation. I only lasted a month because I felt so grimy and dishonest doing this. They also would tell us that 'no' is just another door we have to open to get them on a presentation."
6. "I’m a manager at a produce distribution center for a major supermarket chain. The rule is, if a product is dropped and touches the ground, it needs to be thrown out. No exceptions! I’m probably the only manager at the warehouse who enforces this rule. The number of times I have seen employees pick up cherry tomatoes, blueberries, grapes, etc., straight off the bare ground and put it back in its container… the point is, wash your produce. WASH YOUR PRODUCE!!!"
7. "People who cold call you for sales probably hate their job as much as you hate hearing from them. I know I did!"
8. "I property manage several storage unit facilities. One thing I learned is that your belongings are NEVER 100% safe (they probably aren’t even 75% safe). Yes, there are cameras and on-site staff, but even the most well-kept properties experience mold, calcium, water leaks, pipe bursts, pests, you name it. Long story short: keep your stuff on pallets, use dust covers/plastic tubs, use extra tough locks, and have good renter’s insurance."
9. "Working in an intimates store: We can’t guarantee the underwear you bought aren’t worn. We try to keep underwear out of the fitting rooms and any we find worn or returned are immediately damaged but sometimes people slip it past us. You wouldn’t believe the stains/other things we find in the underwear."
10. "Animal testing for skincare/cosmetics is still happening and just because a product says clean or vegan, that doesn’t mean it isn’t tested on animals."
11. "Wash the top of your cans. Mice poop on those things all the time while they are in warehouse or transit."
12. "I worked in the moving and storage industry and if you EVER pay movers to pack and move your family, DEMAND an itemized bill and proof of service. These people are out here RAKING people over the coals. Inflating box counts, charging for services not performed, etc. It’s not as bad if it’s cash on delivery, but if it’s a corporate move for your job...DEMAND IT. You might not be paying for it out of pocket, but it’s still showing on your income as taxable wages. Special note to say not ALL companies do this but ALL the ones I worked with did."
13. "I worked at a retail clothing store once. Prices were quietly raised in the fall, then dropped back down the original price in time for 'Black Friday.' That’s called 'savings.'"
14. "People like to think that data analytics is some objective truth when there is sooooooooo much bias and room for subjectivity in data collection, analysis, interpretation, and communication. Oftentimes insights are cherrypicked datasets deliberately presented to make a specific point rather than having the data craft the conclusion."
15. "High-volume recruiters spend an average of 10 seconds looking at a resume."
16. "The roses you buy at Valentine's Day were harvested around Xmas. It's the worst time of the year to buy roses and I don't mean because they're more expensive. They're also the worst quality because it's a longer holding time between harvest and use than any other time of the year."
17. "If it’s the first time a professor is teaching a course, there is a good chance they are just one lecture ahead of the rest of the class."
18. "Flight attendant here. Maybe not that big of a secret, but we 100% check you out and tell every one of our colleagues where you are sitting. So if you get some extra looks and attention from the entire crew, one of them most likely have the hots for you."
19. "I work at a fancy resort. If the bed is made or somewhat made when we walk in we will just tidy it up and assume no one slept in it. (So don’t make up your bed before you leave 'be nice' it’s neither helpful for us or the guests who get to sleep in your gross bed next.)"
20. "This isn’t necessarily a dirty little secret, but I work in a clinical laboratory at a big hospital. There is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE between pregnancy tests you get from the dollar store vs the $20 ones at the drugstore. They have the Same. Exact. Technology. Also, we use cheap-ass pregnancy tests in the lab. Please save yourself, if you’re in the US, that $1,000 ER visit and get a cheap ass pregnancy test. I promise they are no different."
21. "The Defense Department literally just spends money to spend it without any actual purpose just so they can say it was spent so they don’t receive less next year. In my building with 10 men the men’s restroom was gutted and remodeled 3 times in 3 years."
22. "In the telecommunications industry they don’t give a cr*p about customer’s loyalty."
23. "Whatever surface you're touching on a tour boat has been vomited on at one point or another. This includes the coffee machine."
24. "The people making good money self-publishing on Amazon are hiring ghostwriters who allow them to flood the market with erotica. They have at least ten pen names they publish under and spend thousands a month to make tens of thousands. I was a fiction ghostwriter for over a decade."
25. "I work in childcare. If your child has a milestone first at the daycare, we don’t tell you. Taking first steps is the one that sticks out the most."
26. "None of your restaurant food is 'made with love.' Anger and anxiety is what made that muffin, Tina. And don't you forget it."
27. And lastly: "Not all that much of a secret, but, I used to work in a peanut butter factory. We produced about 25–30-ish different store brands ranging from very cheap to stupidly expensive, we had a grand total of three recipes, chunky, not chunky, and no additives."
You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.