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Professionals Reveal The Things Their Job Makes Them Hide From Customers

Ever wonder what you aren't being told when you visit a business? These whistleblowers are spilling the tea on the secrets industry insiders are keeping from their customers.

SaibanAhmad asked: What does your job ask you to hide from the customers?

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.


This hero courier.

I worked at a UPS store on a military base. When packages came back to use for whatever reason, we always told UPS that we'd donate the contents to on-base thrift store. We'd keep office supply stuff. BUT that never happened.

One cat, packaged all his belongings at our store and shipped them prior to leaving for deployment. This was at the start of the Afghan war. He didn't check his shipping label right and about 3 weeks after it shipped it came back to us as denied/RTS. We held it for a few months, expecting him to come back.

After waiting, my boss told me to open it up and take whatever I wanted out of it. Trash everything else. So, I opened it and it was like a dream come true. Every gaming system, stacks of games, expensive watches, all sorts of good sh*t. It didn't feel right.

Went in on my day off after hours, looked more inside the box. Found a small address book with numbers. Got in contact with his parents and explained who I was, how I got their numbers etc etc.

Ended up generating a label that night for it and shipped all this guys stuff out on the stores dime. Boss was pissed as hell with me for doing that.

KateJBurns

And you wonder why customers get so frustrated...

My last job was a "white labelled" help desk. You had to hide the fact that your company existed at all from the customer; you had to pretend you were from whatever company the customer was using for their IT.

Either-50-or-200-IQ

I worked for a monitoring center, and that's what we did, instead of saying "This is Avantguard" we had to use the name of the company, we monitored for medical buttons (like "I've fallen and I can't get up! (Alert one, Responselink, Life Protect, EMC Security company, etc.), security systems for homes and businesses, and fire alarms. The thing that made it the most frustrating was when they were doing something wrong on their end, and we couldn't just strait up tell them what was wrong.

Like they would press their button to "Hang up," but it just calls back into us again, and we have to be like "Ok, I'm going to disconnect, you don't have to do anything" while they are screaming that we keep calling them, when it would be so much easier to just say "We can't call you, the only way we can get in contact with you is if you press your button, so stop pressing it unless it's an emergency" That company was awful to work for.

Edit: Also, we weren't allowed to tell them that we were understaffed, or that we were really busy.

strangemagic365

Yeah, definitely vet your tattoo artists.

As a tattoo artist, often times apprentices at the end of their apprenticeship will start to tattoo paying customers (walk-ins) and for a few tattoo shops, the apprenticeships are much shorter than they need to be. So if you're getting tattooed but someone who seems to be young or they seem inexperienced, they probably are, and they're probably still in their apprenticeship. But the shop will tell you they're actual artists. Do your research when thinking about getting a tattoo, and don't be afraid to wait months (or even years) for the right artist for you, it'll save you from really bad tattoos.

untitled-jpg

I think this might have happened to me. Went into a shop with a good idea of what I wanted and was prepared to wait to get it. Surprise to me when they said they'd get me in same day! It looked fine that day and a few months after, but slowly became obvious that they didn't go deep enough in some places and had shaky hands on others.

Good news is about 1.5 years after the initial tattoo I went back to the shop and asked for the artist, who was still working there. He seemed embarrassed and touched it up with no charge. I tipped him good and it looks much better. Still love my tattoo.

doggoismyfriend

"Informed consent"

MD in Pathology. We are the ones who give the bottom line diagnosis and staging for most cancers and many other diseases.

In a weird way the patient isn't out customer - their doctor is. We are telling them what the diagnosis is and what evidence we have to support it. Anything we say can trigger them to do a whole new treatment plan or a bunch more tests, so we have to be careful not to mention random things that we see unless we want them acting in it.

For example we might think 'these megakaryocytes are a little small and I see a few of them bunched together here, but it's only in a couple spots.' If we bring it up it might seem more significant than that, and trigger a distracting question about one disease process when we know that's not the actual problem. A big part of the training is learning how to communicate the truth without clouding it with the truth.

Unfortunately this often means that the reports are almost unintelligible to the patients because they are not the intended audience of the report really.

this_will_go_poorly

And yet, fast food rarely makes people sick.

I've worked at 2 fast food restaurants in my life. At each one, the only time that food safety protocol was followed or enforced was the day that the health inspector was coming to "grade" us.

Edit: I should also note that both stores received 100% Everytime the health inspector came.

Edit 2: Obviously every restaurant is different. It all comes down to management. The stores I worked at were all about getting food out the door as fast as possible, with the smallest number of people working as possible. That leads to cutting corners. Not all restaurants (even fast food) are like that though.

My point in posting was that even though they appear clean, or have a high score posted for their health inspection, that doesn't mean they're following all of the guidelines set in place for them.

sofakingchillbra

It's amazing how common this is.

casualwes

I think the word you were looking for was 'disgusting'

Marksman18

Band Aids are better than casts.

You'd be amazed at how good construction workers become at hiding flaws. It's quite nearly a part of the job description and a large reason why so much of construction effort is put towards cosmetics (beyond the fact that most people just don't want to be looking at a bunch of rough-in work that's functionally the same but aesthetically atrocious).

TheK1ngsW1t

I concur. I was a finisher for some years. Painting, staining, so in other words making your brand new piece of sh!t house that you paid way to much for look nice. Amazing how many home owners get duped or just plainly have idea what they are doing or agreeing to.

ericdavis1990

This is totally unsurprising.

Cellphone store. Customers returned perfectly good phones all the time. We were told to sell the boxes as brand new, first time activations and purposefully leave out the fact that they had, in fact, already been activated and taken home - within 48 hours.

I'd be pissed if I bought a phone full price and it was even slightly used. I let those phones get dusty & would never sell them just to spite that policy.

jabbajae

I used to work at one too and we also did that as well. I think the one thing that annoyed me the most was the push to sell the accessories just cuz it was on a daily basis. I understand the need to sell accessories, but what I didn't understand was the need to sell accessories that DO NOT FIT THE PHONES. Like is it that hard to find accessories that actually fit the phones to their exact model? For example, if you wanted a screen protector it was either gonna fall short around the edges or be too big where we had to cut it so it so would fit.

It was worse for tempered glass cuz we it was more expensive. I loathed every time I had to sell one. If I didn't, I would get in trouble and get scolded for not hustling enough. I worked at a small town store so I knew a good chunk of people and felt terrible selling them. I only sold them whenever managers were present, otherwise I'd just tell customers to order off of Amazon. Screw that place.

busyBEE_5

"Your issue is important to us."

How many people are actually working on this really important project. Spoilers, it's just me...

bobfish42

Client: "Can we add X"

Me: "No."

Client: "Can we have a discussion on this with the whole team?"

Me: "You just did."

pontifecks

Know what doesn't lie? Google Images.

Also, at the hotel I worked at, if a guest found a stray bed bug, all staff were instructed to neither confirm nor deny that it was an actual bed bug. Word games were not fun.

jabbajae

I experienced that first hand! Went to a convention that was infested with cockroaches. Collected a few in a cup, and went to the front desk to complain. They re-assured me that what I saw was just "harmless water bugs" and that there were no roaches anywhere in the hotel. None. Zero. Nada.

Had to ask them if they'd be fine with me releasing these harmless bugs in the lobby, and the moment I said that they froze... and realized there was nothing they could say or do.

DragoneerFA

Gordon Ramsay would not approve.

I work in a deli & bakery currently. All of our food is from frozen & they want me to call in 'fresh' 'baked in store everyday' dude it was frozen for 3 months thawed for an hour & then cooked. It's no better than anything else you get from the freezer section & in many cases the freezer section is higher quality stuff...

werewolf6780

Last year I found out that the "fresh baked" hot-crossed buns sold came in frozen, were thawed and then thrown in the oven for a very short time (I think it was literally less than a minute).

artskyd

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.