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People Break Down The Most Corrupt Thing They've Ever Experienced

No one wants to believe there's corruption in the world, but it's there, hiding behind the thin veils of our truth. It's easier to think everyone is as honest as us, but let's be up front here, not everyone reading this is on the side of the law. Instead, you or someone you know may be involved in a bit of corruption. Maybe not cooperate level, espionage-type stuff, but even something as small scale as a church charity can be run into the ground be greed.

Reddit user, u/ajlk24, wanted to get the juicy, awful deets when they asked:

What is the most corrupt thing you've ever experienced?

The Ink Matters Most

EMS guy: In the days before the internet, I got fired by a (private) ambulance company for using the wrong pen to fill out Medicaid forms after a run. I used a ballpoint instead of the soft tip Flair pens and was immediately sacked by the owner.

A few years later, I found out he was imprisoned for Medicaid fraud. Turns out the soft tip pens he provided didn't go through all the carbon copies on the forms, and he was changing the bottom sheet to show more miles and services for each ambulance run (before sending them to the state). The day I used the ballpoint was for a very long ride, and cost him a lot of (fraudulent) money. That's why he was so infuriated.

pullin2

A Church Against Its Principles

I worked as a counselor at a youth shelter. Almost all the food/clothes were donated by local churches, and they didn't buy anything for the kids, so theoretically they were just paying to keep the lights on and to keep on minimum wage staff. They had a ridiculous amount of grant money, enough to cover the food/clothes plus activities for the kids if they had had to pay for those things. Yet they skimped out on essential things like training.

They gave me a CP certification without ever giving me any training. The shelter had rats and roaches and at times bed bugs. The heat was out for a month, during a blizzard, on Christmas, with girls residing at the shelter. I reported them and nothing happened except them interrogating the entire staff to find out who snitched. So clearly a lot of people were getting paid the money that was supposed to be going to homeless youth. Worst place I ever worked.

ApricityAmends

It's The Things You Don't See

I won't go into details, but I work for a municipality as a fairly low level employee. I've been offered bribes on a number of occasions to let things slide here and there. All very tempting but I like my job too much to risk it for $20 or so.

Long story short the biggest bribe I have been offered is $1000. I reported it to my supervisor and his response was "f-ck dude why didn't you take it? I sure as hell would have" but we filed an official report. Didn't go anywhere as I didn't know the name of the people.

Makes me wonder what else is going on that I don't know about.

swanyMcswan

Skimming A Lot Off The Top

When I was getting food at food banks, the employees and volunteers would take the best quality/tastiest food for themselves or their friends.

adastrally

That's one of the reasons I don't donate to food banks, one time my uncle did plumbing service to a costumer house and she asked if she could pay for it with goods.

Uncle was a bit confused until she showed her garage with shelves filled with a shocking amount of cans and food packages... She worked as a volunteer for a food bank and kept the food, and I bet she wasn't the only one doing it. He refused that as a payment.

Bluemoon357

A Cube Of Sin

An old friend of mine got a job working for a church based charity. They would accept household donations and sell them in a thrift store they had set up to raise funds for the needy. His job was to drive around in a cube van, pick up the donated items and deliver them to the charity.

He openly bragged about picking the best items for himself and would drop them off at his house before delivering the rest of the items to the charity. I called him out on it and told him it was a bad idea seeing as his cousin and two aunts worked there and put in a good word for him to get hired. That's when he told me that they've been doing the same thing for years. He told me his aunts wouldn't even keep most what they stole, rather they would sell the items at garage sales and that it was ok because, " that's how they make their money".

To make matters worse, they were paid in cash so they could keep collecting welfare. Pure trash and needless to say I have nothing to do with them anymore.

Lord-Ringo

In A Den Of Wolves

Realizing that I was the only one who wasn't stealing from the company.

Used to work in the IT department, and over time I noticed that things were going missing. Replace a bunch of monitors in a lab, then a few weeks later notice all the old ones are back - what happened to the ones I just delivered? We don't have nearly as many of something in stock as it says on our shipping receipt. And why are we always out of service kits for the copy machines?

Yeah, all of that was going on ebay or craigslist or somewhere else. Didn't realize it for years, maybe I'm just really oblivious, but the whole department was in on this.

Catsh-t-Dogfart

Ugh... College...

My university makes us buy a public speaking textbook (published by the university) and tear rubrics out of it. Your grades are penalized if you don't turn in the rubric torn out of the book for the teacher to mark your grade on.

This ensures that you can't resell your book, so the next class has to buy brand new books.

All the while, the university is putting up signs about why you should recycle.

Not big compared to some others here, but I'm still salty about it.

shield-616

"Know the law people. Don't let anyone try to pull one over on you."

My wife and I bought a house. The landlord wanted access to the apartment we were living in in the mean time so he could renovate it and sell it at an exorbitant price. We told him multiple times that we were going to keep and maintain the apartment to the end of our lease (only had 23 days left), and that we were going to clean it, etc, like normal. He didn't like that. So he performed an illegal lockout, then charged us a $750 cleaning fee saying we left it a mess, the entire $1900 rent for the last month and attempted to keep our $1900 security deposit.

What he didn't know is I'm not one of these uninformed foreigners he's used to threatening (I live in NYC in Bensonhurst which has a heavy Russian/Pol/Italian and Chinese immigrant population). I know the law damn well. So I went to the apartment and recorded him in the act of locking me out. I'm big Black dude so I was showing restraint by not manhandling him since I'd immediately be found at fault. Then I gathered every ounce of proof I could, built a case and sued his @ss. We also hit him with 311 hazard reports and he got charged a ton for repairs, lead (it was one spot in the closet, but he was still charged). After about two months of back and forth, he acquiesced and settled out of court, giving us back the full last month and full security without charging us the cleaning fee.

Know the law people. Don't let anyone try to pull one over on you.

JHSimz

People Describe The Most Traumatizing Thing They Ever Experienced As A Child

Image by Anemone123 from Pixabay

Life is hard. It's a miracle to make it through with some semblance of sanity. We are all plagued by grief and trauma. More and more people of all backgrounds are opening up about personal trauma and its origins. Finally! For far too long we've been too silent on this topic. And with so many people unable to afford mental health care, the outcomes can be damaging.

All of our childhoods have ups and downs and memories that can play out like nightmares. We carry that, or it follows us and the first step in recovery is talking about it. So who feels strong enough to speak?

Redditor u/nthn_thms wanted to see who was willing to share about things they'd probably rather forget, by asking:

What's the most traumatizing thing you experienced as a child?
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childhood

People Divulge The Real Reason Why They're Still Single

Image by klimkin from Pixabay

Being single can be fun. In fact, in this time of COVID, being single can save lives. But the heart is a fickle creature.

And being alone can really suck in times of turmoil. None of us are perfect and it feels like that's all anyone is looking for... perfect.

Now that doesn't mean that all of us are making it difficult to partner up. Sure, some people are too picky and mean-spirited, but some of the rest of us are crazy and too much to handle. So one has to be sure.

The truth is, being single is confusing, no matter how much we try to match. So let's try to understand...

Redditor u/Mcxyn wanted to discuss some truths about love and our own issues, by asking:

Why are you single?
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being single

Chefs Divulge The Most Important Tips That Amateur Cooks Need To Know

Tiard Schulz/Unsplash

Whether you're an at home parent, a college student just leaving the nest, or a Food Network junkie, there are a few basic tips that everyone should know.

Chef's gave us some of their top tips for amateurs and beginner at home cooks that will really make a difference. They are trained professionals with years of experience in the kitchen, so they definitely know what we're all missing.

If you're looking to improve some of your cooking skills and techniques, but you're still learning how to boil water correctly, this list is for you.

Redditor BigBadWolf44 wanted in on the secrets and asked:

"Chefs of Reddit, what's one rule of cooking amateurs need to know?"

Let's learn from the masters!


What a common mistake!

"A lot of the time when people add salt to a dish because they think it tastes flat, what it really needs is an acid like lemon juice or vinegar."

- Vexvertigo

"Instructions unclear I drugged my dinner party guests and now they're high on acid."

- itsyoboi_human

"Yes! Or tomatoes. They're pretty acidic too and go with so many things. Our dinners are so much better once the garden tomatoes are ripe. Or if a dish is too acidic, oil/butter or a little sugar can help add balance to it."

- darkhorse85

"Like tomato and eggs. Every Chinese mom makes those slightly differently and I haven't had a tomato egg dish I didn't like yet."

- random314

"There's a book called 'Salt Fat Acid Heat' that comes highly recommended to amateur cooks."

- Osolemia

"Reading even just the first chapter about salt made a lot of food I cooked immediately better, because I finally understood salt wasn't just that thing that sat on the dinner table that you applied after the meal was cooked."

- VaultBoy42

"Salt is important for sweets. A batch of cookies without that little hint of salt doesn't taste quite right."

- Osolemia

Unfortunately, this tip might not be accessible to everyone. Many people who contracted COVID can no longer use their sense of smell the way they used to.

"Have a friend that lost his smell from COVID, and now he only recognizes if food is salty, sweet, sour or bitter."

- AlphaLaufert99

"Just wait until he gets his sense of smell back and a ton of foods smell like ammonia or literal garbage now. Yeah, that's fun... It's been 7 months for f*cks sake just let me enjoy peanut butter again!!!!!!!!!"

- MirzaAbdullahKhan

You can't take back what you've already put in.

"You can always add, but you cannot take away."

- El_Duende666

"I find people's problems usually are they're too scared to add rather than they add too much."

- FreeReflection25

"I see you also grew up white in the mid-west."

- Snatch_Pastry

Safety first!

"Not really a cooking tip, but a law of the kitchen: A falling knife has no handle."

- wooddog

"I'm always so proud of my reflexes for not kicking in when I fumble a knife."

"If I drop anything else, my stupid hands are all over themselves trying to catch it (and often failing). But with a knife the hardwired automatic reaction is jump back immediately. Fingers out of the way, feet out of the way, everything out of the way. Good lookin out, cerebellum!"

- sonyka

"Speaking of KICKING in. On first full time cooking job I had a knife spin and fall off the counter. My (stupid) reflex was to put my foot under it like a damn hacky sack to keep it from hitting the ground. Went through the shoe, somehow between my toes, into the sole somehow without cutting me. Lessons learned: (1) let it fall; (2) never set a knife down close to the edge or with the handle sticking out; (3) hacky sack is not nearly as cool as it could be."

- AdjNounNumbers

"Similarly, NEVER put out a grease or oil fire with water. Smother with a lid or dump baking soda in there (do not use flour, as it can combust in the air making things worse)."

- Metallic_Substance

How else will you know it tastes good?

"Taste the food."

- OAKRAIDER64

"Also don't be afraid to poke and prod at it. I feel like people think the process is sacred and you can't shape/flip/feel/touch things while you cook them. The more you are hands on, the more control you have."

"No, this does not include situations where you are trying to sear something. Ever try flipping a chicken thigh early? That's how you rip a chunk out of it and leave it glued to the pan until it's burnt."

- Kryzm

Here's one just for laughs.

"When you grab a pair of tongs, click them a few times to make sure they are tongs."

- Kolshdaddy

"People really overlook this one. You've gotta tong the tongs a minimum of 3 times to make sure they tong, or else it can ruin the whole dish."

- BigTimeBobbyB

If you're looking to get into cooking or to improve you technique, pay attention to these few tips.

Salt generously, add an acid to brighten things up, and don't forget to taste your food!

If all else fails, you can always order take out.

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cooking

People Describe The Most Inappropriate Thing They Ever Did As A Kid

Victoria_Borodinova/Pixaba

As part of the learning process, children often do embarrassing things before they learn a little more about the world and all the different implications therein. While the inappropriate moment is usually minor and ends in laugher some instances are truly mortifying.

One such instance involved a little sister who was around 6 at the time. It was the 90s and at the height of the youth-focused PSAs (think the frying egg representing your brain). One type was a safety PSA about stranger danger. The speaker would remind the children that if a stranger tried to take you anywhere to yell “Stop, you're not my mommy/daddy" to raise the alarm.

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