25 People Share Inside Secrets They Learned About The Industry They Work In

At first glance, a job may appear simple, but as you delve into it, a whole array of unexpected surprises can unfold. Seeking insights into the hidden professional intricacies behind initial impressions, Reddit user Acrobatic_News_9986 initiated a post on the platform, inviting others to share, “What was an industry secret that genuinely took you aback when you learned it?”

#1 I feel like it just surprised me in general once I entered the world of work to learn how disorganised things are behind the scenes, even at the biggest of companies. From the outside looking in it always looks super official and clean cut but really it’s just a lot of people behind the scenes fumbling around and not really knowing 100% what is going on.

Image source: wellyboot97, Karolina Grabowska

#2 The use of microwaves in mid-range restaurants. I knew it was common in fast food, but seeing all the hot sides in a steakhouse with $50 entrees being cooked in a microwave was a little jarring.

Image source: Far-Reception-4598, Billy Mabray

#3 A lot of aisles in grocery stores are sponsored. The soda aisle for example, the store didn’t buy that merchandise, it’s stocked by a vendor.

Image source: zerbey, Fikri Rasyid

#4 Guess how much of your vet bill goes directly to the vet’s salary? About 22%. The rest goes to operating costs and staff salaries (which are never as high as they deserve).

Image source: Kayakchica

#5 From a nursing home with fractured leadership:

Image source: Horror-Collar-5277, Matthias Zomer

CNAs often times have to speed run their cares which is abusive at times.

Patients will spit on and hit staff and face no consequences.

Patients will call black staff the N word with no consequences.

Morbidly obese patients will require routine cleaning of all their yeasty folds by up to 4 staff and will reject weight restriction diets. They’ll request a commode at the bedside so staff have to rinse their p**s and s**t into a toilet multiple times a day.

Mentally ill patients in general will abuse staff and face no consequences. Only thing taken seriously is if a “vulnerable adult” is hurt or afraid.

EMS professionals who wanted to save lives become cab drivers for anybody who falls on the floor or they take calls to pick fat people off the floor. EMS > HOSPITAL > NURSING HOME cycle becomes a way to drain taxpayer dollars from government. It can’t be plugged cause a death/injury will be made into a big deal to necessitate caution.

There are rich people who seem to just move around the country and be piles of s**t instead of changing themselves.

Majority of salary people do about 8 hours of work a week and keep employment by “BEING POSITIVE!” and sucking up to power.

Staff will disable call lights on problematic residents with mental health problems and inability to communicate because otherwise the alarms beep 24/7 and all the mentally ill patients start going psycho. Out of touch HAPPY salary people will cry wolf and point fingers while doing their 8 hours a week. Meanwhile direct care staff do 70 hour weeks contracting life altering fungal diseases from all the morbidly obese folds and a*s cracks.

The point where nursing homes, software, hospitals, EMS, bureaucracy, pharmacies, colleges, and federal reimbursement intersects is a weird mess of power struggles, failures, apathy, and lies/omissions that piled up for decades to the detriment of direct care staff and residents. For example see the opioid crisis for an extreme example but similar stuff is everywhere.

Then covid happened and it guess what, the people doing all the fuckery were unscathed while many hardworking decent people got sick and developed morbidities, died or lost family members.

#6 99% of web traffic to a client’s commercial that they upload to YouTube is fake. That 1,000,000 views within the first few days for that new Bud Light commercial? Most are BoTs paid for by the ad agency that made the commercial.

Image source: yada_u, NordWood Themes

#7 I work in IT security, for a vendor. I am constantly surprised by how terrible so many organizations’ security practices are. There’s outdated equipment, no accountability, and most of it is run on Excel.

Image source: DoubleBThomas, olia danilevich

#8 I don’t know if the rule has changed since I left, but you CAN 100% bring in candy at the movie theater. I worked at an AMC and was tearing tickets one day, a slow day. I was chatting with my manager when a lady came in with a grocery bag full of snacks. I tore her ticket, directed her to her room, and asked the manager about the candy. She said it’s ok. You aren’t allowed to bring in “hot food”. I believe it’s because it’s a health code violation.

Image source: eddiefarnham, Tima Miroshnichenko

So stop doing that stupid s**t like using a huge bowl to pretend you are pregnant. You aren’t a f****n’ rebel. You are basically j-walking. No one cares.

#9 The guacamole that you eat at TGI Friday’s is a giant envelope of dry stuff, mixed with a 5 gallon bucket of sour cream. And it’s pretty freaking good.

Image source: tobeavornot, cubsfriendsteaching

#10 As a former Walmart cashier, a lot of people were surprised when I told them that we were given a 2 minute time limit per customer .

Image source: LeatherHog, Mike Mozart

#11 That if you are asked to rate someone’s customer service (eg your bank lender, salesperson etc) out of 10, anything less than a 9 in some places may as well be a zero.

Image source: airazaneo, Andrea Piacquadio

#12 Not sure if this counts, but when I was in car sales I learned real quick that the actual car itself isn’t where the real money is at, but the backend is. So like warranties, getting work done, etc etc.

Image source: Goopyteacher, Antoni Shkraba

Most dealerships will still put up a fight on the actual price of the car though because they know most people are focused on the car itself. This is also done to help wear you down so you’re less likely to fight on the backend when they say they’ll discount the car price down to X amount but you have to get a warranty or 2 with it. More often than not, most people will cave because they got 2-3k off on the car and don’t realize the warranties are adding on 2-5k and warranties are often straight profit.

Different dealerships tweak the above strategy to their market but generally they all play it to some degree.

#13 College Admissions here: we absolutely discriminate when we read applications, and your chances of getting in are not equal. Some of the ways are legal, some aren’t, but good luck proving any of it. Most selective options will let you know about the legal ways (in broad terms, not in specifics), but plenty goes on behind the scenes that won’t make it to the information session.

Image source: aemon_the_dragonite, Kampus Production

#14 Customer Service in Call Centres – We WANT you to swear at us…The second you swear AT me, NB not just swear, or be personally abusive or whatever, no matter how right you are, you’re wrong and no matter how bad a blooper I made, you’ve just handed me a ‘free pass’…. And I get to cut your call off – Cheers.

Image source: Weeyin999

#15 Years ago, I worked adjacent to the tobacco industry. My area’s RJ Reynolds rep was telling me he went to a retirement party for a colleague who had been with RJ for decades. She was drunk, spilling all kinds of tea, including the fact that cigarette shippers (cardboard displays) use to be placed in the lines at grocery stores specifically to be stolen by children. They knew we couldn’t buy them so they counted on us to steal. And we did. And my gen smoked. .

Image source: Free_Thinker4ever

#16 Worked for a health insurance company that provided coverage for people with Medicaid and used the DRG reimbursement method to pay some providers. The charges on a hospital bill were literally meaningless, all that mattered were the diagnosis codes/procedure codes. Hospital could have charged $5 dollars or $15 million dollars, payment would have been the same regardless. Another one of the many ways in which US healthcare is just so whack.

Image source: SonofaSven

#17 I don’t know if it’s a secret, but I remember hearing someone ask a doctor why they specifically say to “turn your head” before coughing, when assessing for a hernia. The doctor said there wasn’t a medical reason, but “it’s so you don’t cough on me.”.

Image source: TheApprenticeLife, Karolina Grabowska

#18 Whenever you fill out a survey like “how did you like our website today”, most of the time an *actual human* does read your response, and it doesn’t disappear into a black hole

Image source: GaiaMoore, Lukas

tldr; fill out surveys. Your perspective is critical to understanding what you guys actually want.

#19 Cable TV “customer service” the “Assumed Close”

Image source: MyWorldTalkRadio, Tima Miroshnichenko

Basically I was told to interview customers and ask if they thought that they might like to have this product or that product, and then this service or that service, what ever service they said they responded positively to I was to make a check in the corresponding sales order and have them sign before I left the house. Then in a day or so tech would show up at their house with their order and their signature showing that they did indeed order it.

Never could bring myself to do it. Scummy as could be. Time Warner Cable for those curious.

#20 The software industry is in shambles. I don’t know when it happened, but certainly before 2007. Either it’s been like that forever or happened before that year.

Image source: doughunthole, LinkedIn Sales Navigator

If you have time, read through this for an idea of what software development is like.

https://www.stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks

The digital world as we know it is held up together by a conglomeration of toothpicks, empty toilet paper rolls, and chewed up bubble gum.

#21 As an electrician, I’m amazed more houses don’t burn down every day. I do my best, but many others just work as fast as they can and leave behind shoddy work that (sometimes literally) falls apart when you touch it.

Image source: mpworth, Los Muertos Crew

#22 When I found out those Judge TV shows are just game shows and the show pays out the winnings. It’s not really court, it’s more of a game show at that point. Plus those shows fly you out and pay you $500 to be on them. So both sides get paid to be on them.

Image source: Samisoy001, Paramount Domestic Television

#23 When a political campaign texts you, anything you respond with gets read by an actual human. So continue with the funny, cheeky, and even mean responses. But the death threats will get reported to the police.

Image source: thebarkingdog

#24 Lots of musicians buy their records in bulk. 500k units sold is almost platinum, then they turn around and sell it back to distributors.

Image source: Virtual-Key-1379, blocks

#25 A lot of bands, I mean a LOT (including your favorite) use prerecorded tracks in their live show. Even ones you would never think. In fact, I would say MOST do today to some degree.

Image source: NapoliPizzaMan, Vishnu R Nair