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People Break Down The Worst Business Practices They've Ever Witnessed

Businesses have been known to cut corners and abuse their employees to make a buck. It's a trick as old as the institution of employment itself.

But it does come back to bite them... eventually. Every once in a while a business owner feels the effect of the pain they have caused on other people.

Either way, we now talk to each other about these exploitive and abusive practices.

u/PMForDickGraysonPics asked:

What are some of the worst business practices you've seen?

Here were some of those answers.


Not The Animals

A veterinarian I once worked for tried to make me reuse bloody IV tubing between patients, "just rinse it out" he told me. He charged the same amount for a pain injection for a 5 lb pet and a 150lb pet, he over-worked and underpaid his employees, he was rude to his clients, and tried to make staff carry out tasks they were not qualified/educated to do. He would cut corners in any possible way.

Several of us reported him to the board.

EhDub13

Yeah Just Do It Fam

Hostility towards raises. Rewarding your existing employees is almost always cheaper than hiring new. Ive had a manager that scoffed at a single 3% raise for someone who had no raise for 5 years. Good luck hiring a new person with that experience and for less money. There's a reason why job hopping gets you more money, and it's not because hiring new is cheaper.

KourteousKrome

This Is Called Entrapment

Any company/service that allows you to sign up using the internet with minimal verification but requires you to either produce ID, bills, proof of address, or show up in person to cancel that service.

if i can set it up via the internet i should be able to cancel using the internet too.

ThatKiwiBloke

Buzz Buzz Buzz

I used to serve at a restaurant where we wore pagers that buzzed us when a table's food was ready. Good idea right? Well the owners had the policy that you had to immediately go pick up the food no matter what, and that included if you were in the middle of taking another table's order. They said that people "understand" and are cool with it. Of course they weren't though. Every time I stopped taking a table's order and went and got the food, they were totally pissed off. I could not believe the owners did not understand why literally no other restaurant on the planet does it that way.

whinecube

Stealing!

I use the term "business" loosely, but I once did graduate research with a professor who was in the process of trying to get a major auto manufacturer to invest in our lab. They liked us, but wanted an example of some of our work. So rather than directing them to some publications of ours, my professor gave them a zip file containing all of our recent unpublished research, including the basis for a patent application.

My professor was shocked when they just kept it.

RealHot_RealSteel

She Done Closed

I worked at a restaurant that wouldn't let people get a refund on their food even though there was a cockroach in it. Instead they offered a 10% discount on the food as per their "policy". Needless to say this restaurant no longer exists.

FlintstonesViagra

Forcing You To Quit

Trying to get employees to quit. My managers at fast food didn't want to keep long term employees due to having to pay them more and firing them means unemployment costs. Us quitting means no unemployment and not having to give raises.

calverygirl

Fraud....

So this store put a massive discount on weighted blankets. They were originally selling for $150, but were now being offered for $39.99.

The catch? You'd need to sign up for free as a VIP member online. Urm ok no harm done.

So i signed up and bought the blanket. And so did thousands of other people.

The store cancelled our orders and refunded our money, claiming that they weren't able to fulfil our orders. And now they had a couple thousand more new names on their mailing list.

And sure enough marketing emails came pouring through. I unsubscribed once but still had emails coming in.

MalaysianOfficial_1

THE POOR DOGGOS

I heard this one from a friend: She worked at a dog kennelling business that would tour prospective clients through the front of the building and show off how each dog would get its own indoor/outdoor run area and specialized attention, etc. Then when Thanksgiving and Christmas came and they got more bookings then they could accommodate, they set up cages and stacked kennels in a back room and people were paying big dollars thinking that their dogs were in a nice roomy pen while the business crammed as many dogs as they could into these basic cages. It was shameful.

headcase-and-a-half

A Rock And A Hard Place

I worked for a big car rental company in the returns department. They would push us to find and charge customers for any new damage on their cars by awarding bonuses on top of our monthly salary.

We were given mirrors to look for scratches under the cars where costumers would normally not have checked before they rented the car, often leading to heated arguments over if it really was their fault or not. The company did not care either way and made us charge their insurance deposit if they refused to pay. The daily verbal abuse and stress from being sandwiched between my managers and angry customers has definitely left a mark on my mental health and I will probably never work in the traveling industry again.

bjarl

Men Who Used To Act 'Creepy' Around Women Explain What Made Them Change Their Ways

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Society definitely teaches men some really cruel and unrealistic things about women. It ends up warping their attitudes and later affects the relationships they develop (or try to develop, in other cases). Men are also taught that women are crappy communicators, or simply don't communicate at all. Perhaps that contributes to men's behavior around women, which can come off the wrong way. It can seem entitled at best, frightening or violent at worst.

After Redditor rocketbot99 asked the online community, "Men who used to be creepy around women and stopped, what made you change your ways?" men shared their stories.

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Parents Explain Which Things Suprised Them Most When Their Child Moved Out

Image by HISdesign from Pixabay

Parenting is a lifelong commitment.

My mother still marvels at how fast I grew up, and I know she was very much taken aback by the (first) time I moved out. I was 20 then and honestly, she would have been fine if I'd stayed indefinitely. Did she ever think, watching me take my first steps, that the years would fly by and that one day she'd be helping me move across the country? I'm sure she did. But that doesn't mean she was entirely prepared.

After Redditor amberarmy1912 asked the online community, "Parents, what surprised you the most when your child moved out?" people shared their stories.

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Exam Proctors Describe The Most Elaborate Attempts At Cheating They've Ever Witnessed

Image by F1 Digitals from Pixabay

Students who have not prepared for an exam somehow have the energy to devise a plan to cheat.

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proctors

People Break Down The Dumbest Thing Someone Has Ever Said To Them

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Sometimes the things that come out of peoples' mouths are truly astounding. It makes you wonder, where did things go wrong? Why are they like this? As Forrest Gump once said, “stupid is as stupid does".

Here are a few of the most jaw-dropping lay stupid things that have been said by actual human beings. Not aliens trying to figure out how humans communicate--ACTUAL human beings. Thanks, Reddit.

U/cperr310 asked: What's the dumbest thing you or someone you know has said?



First up, what better people to hear ridiculous claims from than children? Here are some people that even teachers couldn’t help.

Well, that’s awkward.

I was in 5th grade like 20 years ago, and I am a male which is important later. My school changed an extra girls locker room into a computer lab. When my class got to go check it out, I say "wow, it looks so different!".

Everyone looks at me like I'm a creep. What I meant to say was "wow it looks so different that the boys locker room!" I still think about this when trying to fall asleep more often than I'm comfortable with.

Xeeke

....no. No it’s not.

War Guy GIF Giphy

In my Spanish class where they were talking about Spanish countries

"What about Syria...isn't Syria Spanish?"

Worst part... NOBODY called her out on it to the point I was questioning myself. The professor had good English but it wasn't her first language and she dodged her question saying she's only going over countries in south america. I had to literally write myself a note that she literally asked that question. Then I got paired up with her like 10 minutes later for a group activity and I still wasn't over this question lol

Papapsie

Fake but also real but also demonic?

A kid in high school tried to convince me that men had an extra rib and that the earth is only a few thousand years old. Same kid said that ouija boards were full of magnets and gears which made them fake, yet they were simultaneously completely real and needed to be burned on sight to prevent demonic possession.

HotelRoom5172648B

But sometimes it’s the parents of children who say the dumb stuff.

Back in 2014 I still vividly remember we were eating dinner, and my brother is chewing with his mouth open while my sister is talking. My dad, still thinking about her talking but talking to my brother said "Talk with your mouth closed." and my sister just went silent immediately.

Starr_fall

Stupid can turn into ignorant really quickly. Here are a few examples of the not-so-harmless kind of dumb statements.​

Fun fact: they don’t use the US Constitution in New Zealand. Who knew?

angela rye guns GIF by Third Rail with OZY Giphy

After the church shooting in New Zealand, they banned guns. My coworker said that they can't do that since it violates the second amendment. We live in California.

Onbakeplatinum

Everyone knows New Zealand is the state below New Canada.

Rysilk

Uhhhhh that’s racist af.

Not to me but my husband.

He had to take an uber home from the Naval Base in San Diego (car was getting fixed) and the guy who picked my husband up was from Pakistan and they had small talk, telling him how he moved over here etc, dude was pretty cool.

My dumbass half sister whom we were staying with for a bit told him straight to his face, "Oh since you're military he probably wanted to like... murder you."

...What a f*cking ignorant, racist thing to say.

HelloxOctober

Just gonna leave this one here....

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside, because you see it gets in the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that out."

The_questcoast

Well that’s a new one.

A trans friend got "You're registered as a man here, so I need to hear a male voice to complete the verification of your acount."

Not the first time the cable company pulled this 'female' account 'female' voice / 'male' account 'male' voice crap. But that one time was on a whole other level.

Tricky_Ad_8459

But most of the time, dumb statements are harmless, and make for a good story down the line.​

I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face either.

alvin and the chipmunks GIF by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Giphy

A few questions I've heard come to mind, I'm not sure which is the best/worst.

A few years ago my mom, in her 60s at the time, asked me if chipmunks grow up to be squirrels. Have you ever tried to keep a straight face while explaining to the grown-ass woman who was responsible for keeping you alive for ~18 years that chipmunks and squirrels are different animals?

In high school during a Spanish class as student asked "Do Spanish-speaking people think in Spanish?" After being told yes, her follow-up question was "Are they born speaking Spanish?" The teacher kept a straight face explaining that foreign language speakers learn their language the same as the student learned English, but there were a lot of other students laughing and brutally mocking her.

Relikter

Ah yes, the two types of guitars.

Dumbest thing I ever asked was, "do you prefer playing electric or air guitar?" I really meant to say acoustic, like my dad's.

Yankstraveler

Air guitar. I don't know how to play the acoustic or electric guitars, but I never get a wrong note on the air guitar.

CCC_037

Did you change your birthday?

At the bank.

Teller: Is your phone number still 123-4567?

Me: Yes

T: Is your address still 123 Easy st?

M: Yes

T: Is your birthday still 01/01/2000?

M: laughing I sure as hell hope so

That_one_air_guy

I can't even make fun of these. One time I asked my husband where the Newport Ferry sailed to.

Newport, obviously.

I think we all have slip-ups in our brains sometimes. It's part of being human, and hey, they stay alive as inside jokes for generations to come

dumb