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Hotel Housekeepers Describe The Strangest Thing They've Ever Seen In A Guest's Room

Hotel Housekeepers Describe The Strangest Thing They've Ever Seen In A Guest's Room
Image by JUNO KWON from Pixabay

Staying in a hotel offers the guest a unique luxury: live exactly as you'd like--within the bounds of the law, hopefully--and then walk out without cleaning anything up.

Then the staff swoops into to clean it all with unbelievable efficiency before the next guest arrives to do the exact same thing.

After all, that's a big part of what the guest pays for.

But some people completely overstay their welcome. They trash the place, break the law, ad leave things utterly destroyed. Or, in some cases, the do things that are absolutely puzzling.

karmeleon_ asked, "Hotel housekeepers, what's the strangest thing you've seen in a room?"

Keep That Thing Safe 

"I mean, when you work in housekeeping, things related to sex, drugs, and just general grossness quickly become far less strange, lol."

"But my favorite story is when I had to get a witness to open a room safe that had been left locked by a guest. Its contents? One Taco Bell bean burrito. Best guess is a particularly drunken guest mistook the safe for the microwave."

-- khaliandra

A Deeply Uncomfortable Honeymoon Setup

"I worked room service at a mid-range hotel. One of the funniest things I remember seeing was during a champagne and chocolate covered strawberries delivery for a honeymoon package."

"This one was requested for delivery before the guests arrived, and I could tell the second I walked into the room that I was not the first person to have been in there. Someone had tossed rose petals around the room and added some decorations for their magical night."

"The one that stood out though: a 3'x3' print out of the bride's father with a massive, cheesy grin and a thumbs-up. It was taped to the ceiling directly above the bed."

-- pulledporksdwch

Took Some Getting Used To 

"I initially found it strange that high school/college aged boys will 'hang out' in each other's rooms completely naked."

"They'll answer the door, completely nude and 100% shamelessly and carry on a conversation with me as if nothing was out of the ordinary."

"At first I thought they were doing it for a laugh to see if I would say anything, but the amount of times it happened dismissed that thought. People are just strange."

-- pulledporksdwch

Great Guests. A Little Too Great. 

"My friends family ran a little hotel at the beach. Nothing fancy, but it was oceanfront. My friend once went to a room to clean, and found the ENTIRE place CLEAN."

"Not just wiped up and etc. the walls and ceilings had been scrubbed, the carpets looked like they had been shampooed, the tub/shower looked brand new (quite an accomplishment at the beach with super hard water and salt spray), the bed frame had been cleaned..."

"...the old beach furniture had been cleaned and repaired, the knobs and track on the sliding glass door had been polished, the railings on the deck had been thoroughly scrubbed, the dirty linens were stripped and folded with a sign saying 'dirty.'"

"We were kinda curious if someone had been killed or what."

-- Bangbangsmashsmash

My Bed, My Morals 

"I worked at a hotel many years ago. We used to get professional sports teams stay for two or more weeks at a time."

"One team that came a few times was particularly interesting. Each room had two players (two double beds per room) and it was funny to see very religious books on one bedside table and porn on the other."

"The most disgusting thing I ever found was a used tampon in the bed sheets and condoms in the toilet. Come on, the bin is just next to the toilet and that thing doesn't flush!"

-- AppropriateLychee0

Mysterious Disappearance

"I worked front desk at a hotel. Our housekeepers found a big purple sex toy in a room and brought it to the housekeeper's office."

"Laughs were had by all until it went missing the same day. Still don't know which one of my co-workers took it"

-- legosinspace

Two Horrible Messes

"I'm not a housekeeper but I worked at a hotel and there were two stories."

"The first, this couple on their honeymoon checked out in a hurry, and when the housekeeper went into the room there was sh** spread on the walls and a hole dug out of the mattress. Still no idea what went down in there."

"The second I guess wasn't discovered in the room, but a guest killed a woman, chopped her up, and put her in his suitcase and rolled it out of the hotel. A trail a blood led to the dumpster where he dumped the suitcase."

-- pasttenseofdrawdrew

An Absolute Party In There 

"I was a housekeeper for 3 weeks in a classy boutique hotel when I first moved to a different country before finding a better job. The first room I cleaned was one of the fancier suites, and upon opening the door, it was clear the occupants had set off numerous confetti crackers the night before."

"There was golden confetti EVERYWHERE. But most of it was concentrated in the bed and in the big clawfoot bathtub. Then a trail of wet confetti to the shower. Nightmare to clean up."

-- mockinbirdwishmeluck

Zero Chill

"My wife used to be a housekeeper for some cabins in a state park. One time, one of her co-workers found a brand new pistol tucked behind a dresser. Apparently no one claimed it, so she got to keep it."

"On another occasion, one of her other co-workers that was extremely religious, found a plate of home-made brownies and ate a couple of them. They turned out to be edibles!"

"She had never had marijuana in any capacity and ended up on the bed, slowly talking about how she thought she was dead and they had to call 911!"

-- Snelly_WorldCrusher

Making Himself at Home 

"Not me but a former colleague who used to work as a hotel housekeeper."

"The strangest thing he ever found was a Polish guest who had left the mini-fridge filled to the brim with sausages."

-- amvoloshin

Yikes

As a hotel guest: I won a company contest to fly myself and a guest to a week-long paid vacation; fancy hotel, free daily activities, etc. What they did not tell us -- and I doubt we were the only ones in this situation -- was that the company paid someone to brazenly ignore the Do Not Disturb sign, and enter our room to drop off free swag while we were away. Came back to find company-branded bluetooth earbuds nestled between the handcuffs and the pillows.

-defenestrate1123

Lions, Tigers and Bears

After a decade of managing hotels, managing housekeepers, there are just too many things. Drugs hidden inducting and then they forget the room they had been in, so they checked into multiple rooms and broke multiple chairs trying to get to the ducts to try and find the drugs (they never did). Dead bodies. Too many sex toys. Lots of drugs. Guns. Swords. Torture devices I was unaware were legal. All the things that go in a standard room occupied by Steven Tyler (the mind boggles). The hospitality industry is an odd one.

-Bullmoose39

Back Exit


Not a housekeeper, but worked at a hotel. The amount of times a housekeeper, or hotel worker, has found a dead body or other things, was wild to me. You obviously don't want to alarm guest, so they try to always use a back entrance/exit

-whoisniko

No staff was traumatized 

My sister's husband's family had something against grandma dying in the family home so they put her up in the nicest place in the city for what was supposed to be her final days. She lived another three and a half months and the bill was crazy expensive. I like to think she did it purposely.

They had 24-hour nurses and no hotel staff was traumatized.

-NeuroticLoofah

Socks

Once cleaned a room where in the bed, the couple left behind both a pair of crotchless panties (ew) and a single, abandoned sock that was pink and had the male/female symbols linked as a pattern...proof that they are hetero-socks-ual, if you may.

I still laugh at that pun. My coworkers never did.

-azumane

Glitter bomb

We also had a lady who I'm sure had schizophrenia or something who took apart almost anything electronic (alarm clock, tv, lamps, etc) and put alluminum foil over the air vents etc. Also smeared her feces on most of the walls. We lost in court when we tried to seek damages.

As listed, TONS of people think they are awesome friends/lovers and pop confetti glitter and rose petals everywhere in rooms.

Lots of firearms under mattresses get left.

-PaulBlartForever

Lovely Ladies

A bag of sh!t, wrapped in a freezer bag and hanging in the free-standing cupboard.

This was the Marriot Hotel in Bristol.

The previous guests were two lovely ladies.

-ihaveadarkedge

​We had a group that would come every year for Passover. They had a bunch of rules and traditions that dictated certain things that they couldn't do during this time if it was "work". One of these was that they could not tear toilet paper from the rolls, the compromise was replacing the toilet paper with boxes of tissues. Pulling was fine, just no tearing. This also meant that if the toilet paper/tissue once used and discarded, did not make it into the wastebasket or toilet, they could not pick it up and the housekeeper had to do it.

Ok, sometimes super gross, but we respected it. What got us was one room not only had sh!tty tissue everywhere, but someone had taken the time to climb up on a chair, unscrew the air vent cover, shove a bunch of tissues into said vent, then put the cover back on and screw it closed. Not sure how none of that was seen as "work" but using toilet paper and cleaning up after ones self was considered work and a no-no.

-fucc_yo_couch

The pillow


Nothing too crazy but one time a baggie of pot fell out of the covers when I made the bed. I finished up placed it on the pillow. I think they left me a tip the next day...

-Indylicious

Out of this world


I'm the front desk supervisor at one of the biggest hotel chains, the brand I work for is a 3-star category so nothing too luxurious! This is my first hotel job and I've been here for 2 years now! This hotel is a pretty new hotel, only 2 years and a half old! When I started working here we had a room that smelled like sewage for about a year, the room was out of order for the whole year, when they finally fixed it, the first person that checked into that room was out of this world.

He called the front desk a couple of times accusing us of throwing live bugs under his door and he requested new towels. As I'm walking up there with his towels, I see him running naked to his room from the other side of the hallway, I go back to the office & I tell my manager, he then calls the cops to have him kicked out. Once he leaves, we go into the room and we found cigarettes being dipped on bug spray, lots of them!! The smell of that room still haunts me.

-ariadnha


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housekeepers

Secrets About The Food Industry They Don't Want You To Know

Reddit user Lilyxrx asked: 'What’s a secret the food industry don’t want you to know?'

Assortment of various food
Photo by Jimmy Dean on Unsplash

Whenever we go out to eat, be it at a fine dining establishment or a quick service window, some of us tend to wonder what the journey was for the food that we are looking at on our plates or in our take-out bags.

Many have similar thoughts when buying frozen or pre-packaged dinners at supermarkets.

The answers aren't always readily available, often because the food service industry will go to great lengths to keep them under lock and key. Well aware, most of the time, that current or former employees will spill the beans at one point or another.

Redditor Lilyxrx was curious to hear some of the most well guarded secrets of the food industry, leading them to ask:

"What’s a secret the food industry don’t want you to know?"

Next Time Your Craving Bananas Foster...

"The 'natural flavors' are just big jugs of glycerin with hyper concentrated flavoring in it."

"Banana flavoring is fairly flammable."

"Source: Worked in food manufacturing."- irony_in_the_UK·

Cholesterol Be Darned!

"Chef here."

"It’s salt and fat."

"If you have a question about anything it’s salt and fat."- LongRest

For Efficiency's Sake...

"Olive Garden makes all their necessary pastas for the whole day from 8-10am every morning."

"Partially cooked."

"So when an order comes through, they grab a serving of the needed pasta style and flash cook them in hot water."

"Also, it’s just the brand, Barilla."- Deerhunter86

Justin Bieber Food GIFGiphy

Before You Pay The Extra Money...

"Beekeeper checking in."

"There is no such thing as organic honey."

"I do not treat my bees with chemicals, but I have no idea where they get their nectar."

"A bee can fly up to three miles from a hive to get nectar."

"It is virtually impossible to guarantee they have not gotten nectar from a chemically treated source."- toad__warrior·

If You Ever Wonder What Makes It Taste So Good...

"Unless it’s a health conscious food joint you’re eating at, the food we serve is designed for maximum taste."

"It’s either dense with fat and sugar, or fat and salt "

"E.G. Those mashed potatoes you like?"

"Made with cream, butter, and salt."

"The quiche?"

"Made on cream, not milk."

"Etc, etc."- petuniasweetpea

Before You Start Bragging...

"Dragon fruit isn’t an exotic Asian fruit."

"It’s a cactus fruit, and as such are native to the Americas and can even be grown in the US."- ferretmonkey

dragon fruit GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphy

In Case You're Wondering why That Taste Is So Familiar...

"A lot of the processed cheese and cream cheese is all the same recipe we just switch the labels and packaging for the different brands we run."

"Source: I work in a cheese factory in a company that services 75% of America's domestic market."- anon5678903276

Another Reason To Have No Guilt Over Take Out...

"Well."

"I work at Dominos, and we are kept afloat by the people who don't coupon and pay full menu price."

"You people are the unsung heroes of labor."- LoweeLL

Unlike Any Chocolate...

"When I worked at a mass production bakery the chocolate for the chocolate covered doughnuts came in giant frozen blocks of 4x4 pieces and contained no actual chocolate what so over."

"When unfrozen it was like some sort of nasty smelling paraffin wax that I would break up with a hammer and place into a melter that would then pour over the doughnuts."- gil_beard

Chocolate Dessert GIF by HuffPostGiphy

What Do Orange Juice And Whiskey Have In Common?

"The reason orange juice tastes consistently the same year round, even though it's a crop harvested once a year, is because citrus oils and citrus flavor are added back to different batches and blended all together."

"Similar to how whiskey is blended from multiple barrels to make it consistent."

"The difference is that even though extra stuff is added back into the OJ, it doesn't need to be labeled because the flavors contain all ingredients from oranges (FTNF-from the named fruit) so the FDA doesn't mandate labeling additional ingredients."- PensiveDoughnut

Does That Explain Their Shape?

"Pringles (and baked Lays/similar) are made of rehydrated and compressed rejected/excess parts of potatoes that go into regular chips."

"I learned that from my dietician at work and thought that was odd."

"I still like them over regular chips."- bluesasaurusrex

A Secret Better Not Known...

"The 11 herbs and spices secret recipe."- NemoTheOneTrueGod

Food Pouring GIF by Great Big StoryGiphy

Just Pop It In The Fryer...

"I was a young lad working at Church's Fried Chicken during the summer, many years ago."

"The owner refused to throw out chicken that had already gone bad; to the point where you'd gag if you smell them."

"Apparently if you batter them bad boys up and deep fry them, the rancid smell goes away."

"His customers never knew they were eating spoiled chicken."- Dirt_E_Harry·

Sweet... But Safe!

"The amount of sugar that goes into Costco bakery products is absurd, especially the apple pie."

"That being said; Costco does not f*ck around when it comes to food safety."

"Every area that is responsible for producing food is most likely cleaner than a white room for producing computer parts."

"There are virtually zero roaches, we found one in the bakery once and shut it down until the exterminator did his thing that very night."

"Someone returned a package of dinner rolls because their child had bit into one and a sharp piece of metal was in it, within less than 2 minutes every manager in the building was doing an investigation that led all the way up to the regional manager and his boss for several hours and determined that it had come off of a piece of machinery before it reached our location."

"We throw away rotisserie chickens if they have left (even for a few minutes) the shelf and someone tries to put it back."- Deathnachos

Costco GIF by hero0fwarGiphy

We'd like to think that everyone who works in the food industry shares the same high standards.

But, as in any industry, there are those out there who will cut corners for speedier results.

On the bright side, it does save you the trouble when deciding what cream cheese to buy...


food

The Best Loopholes People Have Ever Discovered And Exploited

Two people look over paperwork on a desk
Photo by Romain Dancre

Loopholes are everywhere.

But finding them can be time-consuming.

Or they can be a straight-up accident.

Sometimes corporations don't even realize the ways they've given out great deals.

In the early days of the internet, scheming for loopholes was a favorite pastime, but companies caught on.

They're still out there though, just waiting to be discovered.

Redditor Aarunascut wanted to discuss the best "deals" they've stumbled upon and utilized, so they asked:

"What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?"

I love a good loophole.

I would always use the free gym trial memberships.

They've caught on now by using better tracking.

Alas...

Rinse & Repeat

coins GIFGiphy

"You used to be able to order dollar coins from the mint."

"Pay for it on your credit card, free delivery."

"Get sky miles."

"Take dollar coins to the bank, deposit, and pay off bills."

"Repeat."

AMLT1983

I Love Pizza

"I run a recycling center and when Mountain Dew did the win an Xbox One with codes under the soda bottle caps we got a total of 20 Xbox ones. Every worker got one that year. Also, Casey’s Pizza had a thing going that you collected 10 tabs off the large pizza box you’d get a free pizza. We had free pizzas weekly for years till they stopped doing it."

Otis_Firefly

Her Code

"During my first year teaching, teachers were each allowed 1500 photocopies a month. I had 150 students. That wasn't enough. One day, a coworker announced that she was leaving for a different opportunity. I asked her for her copier code. They never deleted her code, so I had 3000 copies per month for the last 5 months of the school year."

driveonacid

Sacagawea

"Older vending machines like the ones in my high school and car wash used to take golden dollars (yes, the Sacagawea coin), count them as a dollar and then spit them back out. You could buy the whole machine with one golden dollar. My friends and I exploited this for 7 months senior year until they swapped all of the machines out."

​MapUnitKey

"Interestingly almost all of the US dollar coins ended up in Ecuador as they also use the US dollar. It was super weird but convenient as an American going there and I guess it really messed up their economy. I had always wondered where they disappeared to though. Major issues with counterfitting them too, any shiny one was basically useless even if it was real."

ember3pines

Coded

Girl Cheese GIF by Pizza HutGiphy

"When Pizza Hut first started online ordering they gave me a code for a free pizza for ordering online for the first time. Turns out the code also worked if you just ordered as a guest and kept working."

Stone_Reign

I miss the Pizza Hut deal days.

Online coupons used to give away the whole company.

$1.50

Make It Rain Loop GIF by Chris TimmonsGiphy

"My bank thinks the vending machine at work is an ATM and refunds my 'atm fee' automatically... Chase bank if anyone wondered. I noticed I was always getting like $1.50 returned to my account here and there and then I realized what it was."

homerinthebushes

Past Services

"Back in the 80s, we found vending machines that were not regularly serviced that would overflow the coin box and spill quarters on the floor. We used to scrape them out from under the machine with a stick. Was a good time to be a latchkey unattended minor."​

​weakplay

"Vending machines in college (Ireland early 2000s) had a flap at the bottom that was supposed to stop you reaching your arm up to steal. But it also had a sensor used to determine if had something been dispensed. So if you held it shut, the machine would think nothing had dropped and you could order as many things as you wanted, then refund your coins and release the flap."

BrianHenryIE

Senior Year

"My senior year of high school a Chick-fil-A opened in our town and to advertise the grand opening they put a free chicken sandwich coupon in the yellow pages of the phone book. No purchase, no stipulations. For whatever reason there were like 1,000 phone books stored in a storeroom off the gym. Me and my buddies ate a chicken sandwich damn near every single day of senior year."

Panther90

Switched with Michelle

"At a former job management rearranged the schedules to expand our call center hours from 7 am to 9 pm. It was still an 8-hour day, you just started later. We had a meeting to discuss if we could pick our own hours so employees didn’t run the risk of working until 9 pm then having to be back the next day at 7 am. Management gave us a hard no-on that. But we were allowed to swap with a co-worker."

"A few of us got together to review the monthly schedule and noticed that 5 people were in the rotation who hadn’t worked there for years. (Seriously!). So, whenever we had to work a late schedule that we didn’t want we 'switched with Michelle.' This went on for almost 2 years before management scrapped the whole idea."

Crazy_from_the_heat

The King

burger king GIFGiphy

"Burger King used to have an app where you’d shake your phone and it would sometimes display a free item. A guy at work wrote his own app that looked identical to Burger King, but would only ever show a Whopper Meal. Every lunchtime he’d go to Burger King and get a free meal."

RedLeader7

I love a free meal.

Especially a free meal at any "cost!" LOL.

loopholes

Partner Pet Peeves: What Drives People Crazy in Relationships

couple painting room
Roselyn Tirado on Unsplash

A pet peeve is defined as something a person finds especially annoying.

These tend to vary from person to person which makes them a frequent issue in relationships. From small habits to major personality traits, it's hard to know what will set someone else off.

A partner's interesting quirks or routine habits might inadvertently get on their significant others last nerve.

Keep reading...Show less
relationships

People Over 50 Explain How Working Has Changed Since They Were Young

Elderly man working on a laptop
Photo by Beth Macdonald on Unsplash

It feels like the workplace is constantly changing, especially since the pandemic, with more people working from home, more systems being automated, and more social pressure for workplaces to evolve.

But it's even more jarring to think of how much the workplace has changed for those who have been in the workforce for many decades and how seemingly every aspect of their work has changed... at least once.

Redditor LightningStrikes818 asked:

"Redditors who are 50 years old or older, what has changed the most about working when you started working vs. working nowadays?"

Dress Codes

"Skirts/dresses and pantyhose required of women in many offices through the 1990s."

- hhhmmm0

"Flipside: suits and ties, buttoned-up shirts. Brutal in summer."

- ridleyfiredome

"Pantyhose were high maintenance. I had to have an extra pair in my desk drawer in case of a major run. I had clear nail polish at home and work to stop any runs above the hemline."

"Pantyhose were expensive, I had nice department store hose for special occasions, and bulk mail order hose for daily wear. They had to be washed in mesh bags and hung to dry."

"In the summer I’d get swamp crotch when it was hot and humid, and heat rash on my thighs where they rubbed."

"Heels had to be polished and the heel tips replaced at the shoe shop. Most office clothes were dry clean only, and it was expensive, and yet another errand. Office clothes were expensive, I didn’t have many clothes, I had to plan what to wear and time the dry cleaning."

"I don’t miss the nightmare of heels and hose from the 80’s."

- phineasminius

Electrical Transfer, Who?

"Having to go to the bank to cash my paycheck."

- Cndngirl

"Oh my god, yes, and we needed to wait until after 3:00 PM to cash it."

- Big-Reflection-104

Work and... Strip Clubs?

"We took a company van with a logo on it to take out-of-town guests to a strip club. I don’t even think I can say that out loud at work today."

- scruffles360

"Strip clubs were standard practice. Especially in sales. Many deals closed in those places over my career."

- YOU_WONT_LIKE_IT

Smoking Spaces

"People smoking indoors. Clouds of smoke everywhere in the office and no way for a nonsmoker to avoid it. That was the norm so you just had to suck it up."

- andBobsyourcat

"Yes, at one stage I had the misfortune of sitting next to someone who used to smoke a pipe. I could barely see my computer screen at times for the clouds of smoke."

"Also, the IT support guy would come over to do something and he always had a cigarette dangling from his lips, dropping ash into my keyboard. Urgh! Different times!"

- MickSturbs

Office Parties of Old

"Man, in state government, all the older employees have similar stories of work parties in the 90s. Booze everywhere, smoking, people dancing, and having fun. Everyone brought their spouses, etc."

"Now you're lucky if you see a Christmas cake. People wonder why everything feels like it's coming apart at the seams and people are so unhappy. That aspect of being a human being fun, even at work is gone."

- t00sl0w

"I'm a millennial in industrial equipment sales, and it genuinely feels like you showed up to a party about an hour after everyone was gone."

"Nowadays, I can't even have a beer with dinner and expect to expense it."

- titsmuhgeeee

"Oh man, the office Christmas parties then, versus now?? Forget about it. Like comparing a wedding to a funeral."

- Schyznik

Safety Precautions

"I'm 42 but feel like I want to chime in."

"Health and safety has changed loads. You wouldn't get away with half the sh*t we did when I was 17."

- section4

Constantly, Always Sitting

"I watched office work go from sedentary to virtually immobile. We used to retrieve paper files, pass memos around, and consult with coworkers in other sections and floors."

"Now everything is available on the screen in front of us, everything can be shared with a few clicks. It’s convenient, but so unhealthy."

- MathematicianWitty23

What's a Pension Again?

"Hardly anybody has a pension anymore."

- whitewolfdogwalker

"That's where I feel really lucky to be in Australia, we have mandatory superannuation (a percentage of your pay plus employer contribution goes into a fund for your retirement) and most people will also qualify for an age care pension in addition to their super."

"The pension isn't really enough for our current seniors who don't have much super (due to the timeline of when it was introduced) but generations after that should be relatively well set up for retirement."

- TheGardenNymph

Work Availability in General

"I'm in the UK."

"It was a great deal easier to find work. You'd get vacancies posted in various places and could go down to the Job Centre, browse vacancies posted on postcards on boards, pick out the jobs you were interested in, and get a member of staff to arrange an interview for you. Just like that."

"Dress codes were more formal and you actually had to go to work. If you worked in an office for the right company work finished Friday lunchtime when you'd go with your colleagues to the pub. You'd go back after the 'liquid' lunch hour and work Friday afternoon, but no sh*t got done and work piled up for Monday."

"You got paid either direct debit, cash or if you were unlucky by cheque. You had to deposit your cheque in the bank or building society and wait for the cheque to clear, usually four days, but sometimes 10 days. If you got paid cash you'd get it in a small brown envelope known as a wage packet which listed all deductions on the outside. It still felt good to tear open the wage packet and take out the cash."

- ElvishMystical

The Value of Employees

"That you chose a career, and you worked for an employee, and they valued your experience. You rose in the ranks of your profession, you became a valued team member, and you stayed until you retired."

"Changing jobs often is frowned on; if you make a job commitment, you follow through on it. People get bothered and quit/move/change really quickly now. That's not necessarily bad, but it has created a gap in expertise; everyone is new all the time, and there isn't any value in having experience."

"If you happen to be an elder in your field with some level of legacy knowledge; it doesn't seem to matter because your boss is likely younger than you and less experienced."

"There used to be jobs what you did to get paid and live, and careers, what you did because you wanted to invest time into being good at something, AND that was how you made a living."

"Moreover, you went to school to be in a career. So you put time and energy into attaining your job, therefore you'd want to stay in it and grow. In theory."

"I'm not sure anyone cares about being in a career anymore. Because we all feel so betrayed by the system; wages not keeping up with COL, inflation, (and inflation subsiding and prices staying high because it's what the market will bear), and when everyone is replaceable, then no one is an expert."

"I'm GenX. I work in healthcare. I work in a broken system that no one actually wants to fix. Those of us working in this system are now just grist for the mill. It's too bad because we spent a lot of time and money going to school to be able to work in our chosen field."

"In contrast, my mom was also a nurse. She had a career. She worked in it until she was 70 and retired. She worked with a team that mostly stayed the same, over decades. I don't work with anyone I started with at my job six years ago."

- bunnehfeet

Business Phones

"People used to answer their business phones."

- BornFree2018

"Oh my god, work landline numbers. I never see those anymore. I don’t even have a phone number in my email signature at work anymore."

"And business cards used to be such a big deal. I used to get really excited to see my name and title in print. I would always send my parents one when I got a new job. What a dork!"

- ptpoa120000

What Work-Life Balance?

"There was a lot more understanding back in the 80's and 90's that each employee had a life outside of work, and work would end at 5:00 PM. You could leave work and go do something that you liked, maybe a martial arts class or some learning workshop somewhere."

"There were no phone calls. Text messages and email hadn't happened yet. Pagers were rare. People were in better shape. They had time to workout and were encouraged by their bosses to go do something to keep in shape."

"These days, it's the opposite. There's no encouragement from your boss or your coworkers other than to just work around the clock. You're never 'off.' Emails, text messages, Slack messages, video calls, and 'tickets' from your company's internal issue tracking system come in at all hours of the day."

"You're tracked in every way possible these days. You're given impossible deadlines. It now takes incredible willpower to break free and 'sneak' away to go workout. You're exhausted all the time, so you lose the desire to workout. You just want sleep."

"Instead of meeting up with friends somewhere for dinner, you are happy to just get home, get something hot to eat from your microwave, and numb yourself by watching YouTube and Reddit."

"What you do now during your downtime is very low quality and is just done to unwind from the stress that follows you no matter where you are. They call this Flex Time, and its purpose is ostensibly to give you the ability to walk away from your work and go enjoy life. Funny."

- mhv64sj

New Measures of Success

​"Working for a company for many years was seen as honorable and a sign you were a good worker."

"Now it’s viewed as someone complacent, scared of change, and stupid for not salary hopping."

"I don’t disagree, though; I’ve been at my company for a long time and it’s anything but complacent and always changing."

- MysteryMeat11

"This is why we in-betweeners especially (between gen-x and millennial) have been conflicted and confused about it all. We were raised by older boomers and heard it's best to stay with companies because it looks bad on resumes to not and can even affect your buying things like houses and cars."

"But then when we did, we were let go during times like the recession and cutbacks having to start all over again, on top of not getting raises like the new hires and then confused because we were told staying and being loyal looked good and led to success."

- fidgetypenguin123

A Literal Paper Trail

"Paper. Lots of paper."

"Before email, there were people (secretaries or admins) who would take a memo someone printed out on their computer, make physical copies, and either walk around to every executive’s desk, or put into inter-office mail. This memo could be to a few people, one person, or for a general announcement needed to go to everyone."

"For expediency, these memos would also be posted in public areas (lunchroom, messaging board) if it was a general notice. These memos were often routed from the head manager throughout the department if it was more for general information."

"We once had a wave of new hires (about 20 people in our company of 400) and each got their own announcement. So, 20 people and 50 copies was two reams of paper. Copied. Hand carried or inter-department mailed. For one set of announcements."

"Oh, and each department admin had their own routing slip (small piece of paper with each person in the department’s name) that was stapled to the announcement. When you got the memo, you read it, crossed your name off, and gave it to the next person on the list."

"That’s where 'they must not have gotten the memo' comes from."

- UncleGizmo

It's interesting to look back on how things have changed. While some things have definitely improved, like improved safety precautions and more relaxed attire, other things like a sense of work-life balance have certainly declined.

If people were able to choose their working conditions, it'd be interesting to see if they'd choose today's working conditions or a different work-life balance...

work stories