People Share Dark Secrets From Their Profession The Public At Large Doesn't Know About
All things we shouldn't know.
Pulling back the curtain isn't always a great idea. Just ask the curious cat. Oh wait you can't... they're dead. Sometimes secrets are the integral part in making the magic. Many professions withhold truth from the public. Now somethings we might be better off knowing, but then the status quo will never be the same. Do we really want to know how the donuts are made?
Redditor u/CircleBox2 was wondering who felt like shedding some light on a few things we as the people are in the dark about by asking.... What's a dark secret/questionable practice in your profession which we regular folks would know nothing about?
Jeweled.
heating up hot stuff GIF by Bunim/Murray ProductionsGiphyPretty much ALL the high-end handmade in Australia jewelry in Australia is made at a secret factory in Bali. All the clients have to show an established business and sign confidentiality agreements.
"body brokers"
There is a problem in substance abuse treatment in the United States called body brokering. Substance abuse treatment can be very expensive and insurance companies pay A LOT of money for a patient to be there. Treatment centers will hire "body brokers" to find addicts with the best, highest paying insurance and entice them to check in to the specific center, the treatment center then gives the broker a commission from the insurance money.
This can go as far as body brokers literally putting more drugs in to the hands of some addicts before they come in, bc the higher level of drugs in your system upon admit, the more and longer the insurance company will pay to the treatment center.
Brokers will also hire other addicts in a pyramid scheme type way to check in to the treatment center, make friends with the other patients, and upon discharge encourage relapse so they come back to treatment.
Submission.
Have you ever started filling out a form for a quote on something (insurance website, or literally anything) and then changed your mind and said "nah, I don't want to give them my personal information", and then abandoned the form before pressing "submit"?
If you think that stopped them from getting your personal information, it didn't. Most companies looking to capture leads will capture your info in real time as you enter it into a form. The submit button is just there to move you to the next step, not to actually send your information to the company.
The Honor System.
Role Playing Reaction GIF by Hyper RPGGiphyCustoms broker here. Every day hundreds of thousands of containers and air shipments arrive into United States territory. The volume of customs entries entered every day is staggering. When we get licensed to be a customs broker we are trained and tested not just on knowledge, but ethics. We even take a pledge to partner with CBP to uphold the law, and cooperate with them should we come across anything suspicious. Why so much emphasis on this?
Customs can't actually screen everything coming in. I'm oversimplifying but CBP basically works on the honor system. You file an entry saying what the shipment is, and they just take your word for it and release it. This happens hundreds of thousands of times a day. Maybe at best customs can screen 3-7% of what's coming in, the rest of just waived through.
They're Guessing.
You know the people who write instruction manuals or user guides in things you buy?
Half the time, they've never even seen or touched the product. Some dude just sends us pictures, a rough description of how it's supposed to work, and that's it.
ETA: Wow this took off. To all the IT dudes of reddit. I actually browse the brand specific subreddits to figure out what to add to my user guides because that's how little info my company provides me. Thanks for making my life easier!
Actor Issues.
I work on on a popular teen TV show. All the lead actors do cocaine regularly and they often come to set high or show up to set late because they chose to party on a Monday night.
People always complain that Disney (in example) always hires old as hell people for their roles, I mean would you hire a teenager for a show that might either have a pilot and one season or maybe run for years if it's successful? I mean, would you really? You don't remember when you were a teenager all the stupid crap you did? Now add fame and income.
Mama Mia!
At a very large pizza chain restaurant that remains widely popular, we had these perforated pans for thin crust and stuffed crust pizzas. They'd get washed in the dish washer by the hundreds per day and at least half would still have burnt cheese on them. Well they were just stacked to dry.
When making new pizzas in those pans, sometimes the pans that were left to "dry" overnight grew bits of mold around the burnt cheese. We were told just to put the dough on top because otherwise we'd never keep up with the orders if we rewashed everything. The manager said, "don't worry, it gets cooked."
Buttless....
all star baseball GIF by Lansing LugnutsGiphyMinor League Baseball (all minor league sports?): the attendances figures are bullcrap.
And I don't just mean "they announce tickets sold instead of butts in seats." No, they just make it up. Teams purposely inflate attendance figures to attract sponsors. ThatUncertainFeeling
Be Announced.
If it has to be accessed regularly in an IT setting? It's not secure. Not unless you're in an industry that actually polices it.
Yes, people are dumb enough to pick up USB thumb drives they find on the ground. The nicer and newer it is, the more likely it'll get plugged in.
Also, if you're looking to verify the security of your vendors, don't announce your visit.
Ghosted
take notes GIFGiphyNot currently my profession but ghost writers in fiction. John Grisham, Danielle Steele, James Patterson, Janet Evanovich etc., all those big names with an NYT bestseller every year use ghostwriters who are are never credited or mentioned. It's barely even a secret.
"There's a big difference..."
Whether it be due to being extremely busy, not caring, not knowing, or the "correct" way just being so damn impractical....you'd be shocked how many corners are cut in every part of the healthcare system. There's a big difference between how nursing/medicine is taught vs how it's practiced.
"Only a few..."
As an exotic dancer; we talk about you in the back. And we laugh and make fun of you. Only a few customers get any kind of praise. Those are the ones who listen to our rules and tip well.
"In the auto industry..."
In the auto industry, mechanics are paid for how long it takes to complete a repair. Makes sense, right? Except that at dealerships, the auto brand has determined how much time can be charged for a given job; so if the tech does it in less, they get paid for the full time and the customer gets charged for the full time - no matter how much time it actually took.
Let's say a simple headlight bulb change. Pop the access cover, take the old bulb out, throw the new one in, turn it on and off to make sure it works. Takes two minutes. But the customer gets charged for thirty, because apparently that job is worth 0.5 hours.
It seems pretty insidious to me.
"Obviously..."
It's possible that this is commonly known, but in America pet food that has expired is legally required to be thrown out. Dry and canned pet food of course can last for months after expiration and be perfectly safe. So not only is it not donated to animal shelters, most pet stores actually tear open the bags and open the cans so that dumpster divers can't use the food for their animals. When I was homeless and had a dog I tried to find stores that didn't open the containers they threw out. I was usually not successful.
Obviously the same thing is done with human food, but I've heard in some places the laws are changing for that and they are allowing stores to donate semi expired food to food pantries. I go to food pantries myself often and I'm grateful for this slow but hopefully steady change and how we handle food "waste". The USDA says approximately 12% of all Americans are food insecure, which means they may not know where their next meal is coming from. About a third of all food produced in America goes uneaten which is something like a hundred and sixty billion dollars. Sometimes it all just makes me want to cry.
"No wonder..."
The insurance industry, at the corporate level, is all about wining and dining the consultants of huge companies that do nothing but act as a middle man between companies looking for insurance and the companies selling insurance. I've seen THOUSANDS spent on getting the opportunity to bid on a contract. No wonder health insurance is so expensive. The money spent is enough to stock a soup kitchen for years.
"I give the worst deals..."
I give the worst deals/worst service to rude guests, and upgrades/vouchers for free food/special discounts to nice people who don't yell at me when something goes wrong with their rooms.
"I've been working..."
I've been working at a Safeway grocery store for a while now and I am on the "sanitation team" because of the coronavirus. This consists of me holding a rag and a spray bottle and mindlessly spraying and wiping the entire store for 8 hours a day. And because of an apparent cleaning supplies shortage, we had to use the same rag all day for everything. Cleaning toilets, sinks, and then the conveyor belts, self check out stations, and everywhere you touch and set your groceries in the front!
"Most general duty officers..."
Police officer in Canada.
Most general duty officers despise doing traffic, and they will not write tickets if they can avoid it. They love warnings because you can't dispute a warning, and there's no chance of court. Many don't know the elements of mundane-seeming offences, and would have a hard time giving evidence in court. If they're going to write tickets, they'll write for administrative violations that can't readily be disputed (no insurance, expired drivers licence, etc) and give you a "break" on the actual driving offences.
But god help you if a traffic unit gets you.
"As much as it's discouraged..."
As much as it's discouraged, most teachers talk/complain/laugh about their students and their families in the staff room.
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"People die everyday..."
People die everyday because of doctors' handwriting and wrongly prescribed drugs. And yet I rarely hear any doctor go to jail because of it.
Also, if doctors make mistakes, they would devise a narrative that removes the blame from themselves, and pin the blame instead on nurses, residents, etc. And usually, patients wouldn't even realize this because doctors are so good at hiding their mistakes.
"Ethically..."
I'm not sure how dark it really is but as a network admin, if your company has an email server, we read them. Ethically it's a gray area without a good reason but legally we are 100% allowed to do it and a lot of us probably do, just for fun. So just never send anything personal from your work email.
"I've learned this practice..."
The Netherlands. But this counts for a lot of the EU.
For us it is common practice that the grave diggers are also the people escorting the casket. Many gravesites here use sand with a top layer of about 30cm of dirt as it helps the rotting process and the gravesites are mostly constructed artificially with a big layer of sand with dirt in top.
We don't add extra sand, we use the sand that already was there, the entire graveyard is build on a big layer of sand. Again this is common practice to help the natural process.
We have to stand on the coffin to get in the grave to remove the chains and remove the iron sheds preventing the grave to collapse. There simply is no other way. But when we fill a grave the family is never present.
Our cemetery doesn't have a crematorium so I wouldn't know about that.
I've learned this practice with our national education for grave yard employees and spoke to many grave diggers from all around the Netherlands. The practice is mostly the same everywhere I describe with the biggest difference being that some sites use the krane to remove the Sheds from the grave.
"I work in a distribution plant..."
I work in a distribution plant for the U.S. Postal Service. Putting "FRAGILE" on your package won't actually make us treat it any better; it's all going on one of the sorting machines anyway. While we do our best to prevent it from being crushed by other, heavier, packages, it's nowhere near guaranteed.
What should you do? Pack it FULL of soft things like bubble wrap or packing peanuts.
"I'm a low paid junior tech..."
Your internet service provider knows what kind of porn you watch.
I'm a low paid junior tech, and if you're not using a VPN, I can pretty much pull up the complete web browsing history of anyone in my service area.
"We'd go to power plants..."
Past profession. Environmental engineer. We'd go to power plants and such and make sure their emissions fall within epa standards. Well guess what happens if they fail an emissions test? They keep us on site while they change the settings and have us run tests until they pass. Not illegal apparently.
Gee, I wonder what happens as soon as we step off the property. Not like they'd change the settings back to what it was before, certainly not.
"I work in IT security..."
I work in IT Security and I gge paid to advise men how to hide their porn and side chicks. I also advise how to protect companies when their employees use porn or hire sex workers using company assets.
"As an example..."
The auto industry has a bunch of them. Find a shop that you trust. Dealerships tend to be a little less shady than independent shops, but they're not immune.
As an example, one of my friends works at a dealership and he said if they find an electrical issue that's likely caused by a battery they'll attach a bad battery's test results to sell a new battery.
"It required more training..."
It required more training for me to get my food handler's permit to make pizzas as a teenager than it did to be able to drive an ambulance. How much training (beyond proving I had a normal driver's license) did the latter require you may ask? Hint: it starts with a Z and ends with an ero.
"The most common of which..."
Most people would be amazed at the amount of health code violations that take place in restaurants. The most common of which is in fast food where items that are supposed to be labeled with hold times are just given new labels when they expire. As long as an inspector didn't see it never happened.
"I used to work..."
I used to work with a nonprofit organization that cleans up plastic bags and other litter and turns it into art or other items. Specifically, plastic bags would be washed, sanitized, and crocheted into different items like bags, coasters, etc.
Well, turns out that is how they marketed it. But in reality the artisans that made the crocheted pieces would buy the plastic bags in bulk, and crochet from those.
"That being said..."
I work as a welder/fitter, mostly on structural steel, and for the most part we do everything right because lives are literally on the line.
That being said, sometimes, by chance, and totally not because we know the beams will only be primed and then covered with concrete/more steel/walls/ceilings, there might be a slight chance of dicks being drawn on in oil markers designed to bleed through the paint. Oh, and that handrail almost definitely was not made with "schedule 80 posts" because the engineer is a dumbass and the rail is blocking you from falling into a wall on a stairway with 3 steps.
Also, its almost a guarantee that every time something isn't done by when the customer wants it, the foreman will blame it on the detailer or engineer not getting us prints soon enough, but it's almost definitely caused by the foreman forgetting when the job was due and not requesting prints, or forgetting we had prints until about a week before the job is supposed to be installed, especially if theres 40 tons of steel that hasn't even been ordered yet, and has to be galvanized.
"When meat falls on the ground..."
I'm a butcher.
When meat falls on the ground we pick it back up dust it off and put it back on a tray. The older butchers joke about it being "seasoned" before putting it back on a tray. Also flys are usually an issue in warming meat coolers, two of the places I've worked in the past had massive maggot infestations and fly's constantly landing on meat before it gets wrapped.
"It's very easy..."
I cut hair for a living as a Cosmetologist. It's very easy to harvest blood and hair (obviously) from clients and I know of one or two who make/have made voodoo dolls of clients.
Schools
Teachers heavily influence your child's future when they're in elementary school via a practice called tracking.
It's technically illegal, but it happens anyway. Basically, a student establishes their behavior and intelligence within the first few years of school. Teachers notice who has "promise" and talk about them with each other (not as a conspiracy, but just as interesting lunch conversation). Then, when students progress to the next grade, and the administration is putting together class lists, they group those smart students together. But teachers also pick out the troublemakers, and they get grouped together too. Have you ever wondered why your teacher had that one class they hated to teach?? That's why. It was the low tracking class, and it was packed full of the kids that were estimated to amount to little.
And it continues on through the grade levels. The smart kids who were identified in elementary school continue to get smarter because they're put in the best classes, typically with each other. They're pushed by guidance counselors toward AP courses and college credits. Meanwhile, lower tracked students, who weren't in the best classes, are pushed toward vocational and technical schools.
There's a correlation between socioeconomic status and a student's likelihood of being low tracked, but that's a much deeper and complex problem.
"When the butchers were grinding beef..."
I used to work at a butcher shop in a grocery store. When the butchers were grinding beef, they would add fat to the grinder if they needed a less lean product. One day I watched a butcher take pork fat out of the garbage and add it to ground beef.
I hope nobody with dietary restrictions buys food there. All I could think was "that's not kosher."
"To be fair..."
Pressure from higher-ups, on quality control, to sign off on welds that do not pass, at a nuclear power plant. To be fair, it isn't widespread, and is very illegal. But it does happen.
"All tenders are decided..."
I'm a distributor of a famous laboratory equipment brand made in NL in a South East Asia country. Everybody is corrupt here. All tenders are decided before they're even launched. We bribe the potential buyers to buy our product. And most of our salesperson markup that money to take some for themselves too. It's effed up. We buy from NL around 50k euro and sell it here for more than 200k.
"Their field teams..."
I used to work multiple jobs- from a babysitter, assistant in a long range telecommunications company, to a cashier at a gas station.
As a babysittern - some kids I used to babysit were about 10-12, but they always knew about all the s*** I didn´t want to show them. Sometimes, these kids talked about serious topic (like alcoholism and drugs), or in one instance, gore. Some of them didn´t have a problem in Cuphead COOP, Fortnite, or some other games, and were able to play these games pretty well, so when I was babysitting two siblings, we used to play a lot of Portal 2 and COOP games.
As an assistant in the LR telecomm company – we used to work along large telecomm companies. Their field teams had no clue about what they were doing - most of their experienced staff (that was out of the company) had already set up most of the stuff. We were usually contracted to do their stuff for large teams, even if there were only about 7 people on our staff traveling all across Slovakia (including me). We had a lot of disputes with Telekom, Orange, and the third largest internet provider in our country.
As a cashier at a gas station - expired food wasn't usually disposed off in the recommended way- sometimes we ate the food after the date of expiration where cameras and people couldn't see us. The only thing we've always got rid of were baguettes. I ate a ton of expired expensive yoghurts, hams, salamis and other stuff while on a lunch break. Also, when our bosses weren't present in the place, we used to make "illegal hotdogs", which were crazy combinations of stuff we had (vegetables & sauces that we had too much of, or all ingredients combined).
My coworker also usually gave me 4-5 overcooked sausages to take home, since their expiration period was only few hours long. One coworker took the expired food home with her to feed her chickens. Also, when the customers left the special points behind, we kept them to ourselves, and put them into the point collection cards. So, after each shift, I left with at least one six pack of beer, or a bottle of sparkling wine (special promotion for buying a cleaning program).
People Share Common Insults From Their Country That Don't Make Sense To The Rest Of The World
Reddit user THEREAPER8593 asked: 'What insults are common in your country but you think most of the world would not understand/ever use?'
Rather than resorting to simple name-calling, many people will rack their brains for a clever insult that leaves their adversary speechless.
Of course, there are some fairly common insults that everyone knows and can keep in their back pocket when needed, also guaranteed to leave their conversation partner speechless as well.
Sometimes, however, they are not left speechless because they can't find a clever comeback to the insult just thrown at them, but rather because they have no idea what was just said to them.
Owing to the fact that this particular insult might be commonplace in another country, but makes no sense elsewhere, with it's meaning garbled, if there was any meaning left at all.
"What insults are common in your country but you think most of the world would not understand/ever use?"
An Insult, Or A Suggestion?
"South Korea has an insult that says 'The Han River is warm'."
"Doesn't mean much literally but it implies that it is a good day to jump off the bridge of the Han River because it is not too cold."- SnooTomatoes7746
Hard To Say Which Is Better... (Or Worse?)
"Most of the world uses "motherf*cker", which we do as well. But in India it's much more common to call someone sisterf*cker."- PhreedomPhighter
...A Lot Of People Do...
"You have a bird“- stan-twice
Is This Even An Insult?
"In Australia the biggest insult is 'Thanks Champ' or 'Cheers muscles'."- b7oke
Definitely A Word No One Wants To Hear...
"'Kanker' (cancer) is used as a swear word/Insult here."
"Example: "je kanker moeder" (your cancer mom/mother)."
"The Netherlands."- Co_caine_
Well, Not Everyone Wants To Be Stuck In There...
"Greeks use the word 'p*ssywipe' when sitting in a tavern over a meal with their kids around."
"Basically calling someone a tampon is common."- International-Cup143
Ladies Manufacturing GIF by SiemensGiphyDefinitely Lost In Translation
"Jy's 'n poes."- take_the_L_
"Schafseckel (Sheep ballsack, you)."
"Krummbohreds Arschloch (off centre drilled a**hole, you)."- HF_Martini6
If Not An Insult, It's A Darn Good Metaphor...
"Sh*t a hedgehog" most would probably understand but not use."- IntelligentGrocery79
GiphyFill In The Noun...
"'You're so pretty'."
"Said in a sweet, condescending voice means 'it's good that you're pretty because you just said something so stupid that it proves that you're dumber than a bag of hammers'."- TrailerParkPrepper
Ding Dong?
"Bellend."- YaMomsHouse22
There Are Worse Things To Be...
"In France they say 'your mother is a hamster and your father smells of elderberry' all the time to the English."- Cussec
Christmas Hamster GIF by MashableGiphyNot Out Of The Realm Of Possibility...
"your ma's yer da."- throwawaythro2020
Just Stay Out Of The Kitchen...
"F*ck your mum's onion."- Alexshere_Ro
Of course, having a strong insult that isn't so well known outside of your own country might work to your advantage.
For all they know, they could be thinking that you are paying them the most wonderful compliment.
Making everyone happy...
A natural part of work is the possibility of losing your job.
Sometimes, it's because the company is downsizing and needed to eliminate your position.
Other times, the company is losing money and needs to make lay offs.
And sometimes, the company specifically doesn't want you anymore, and they fire you.
Getting fired is always a big experience (though usually not a good one), but in some cases, the experience is more memorable. Reddit users have stories like that and are eager to share.
It all started when Redditor shittlebuffout asked:
"How did you get fired?"
Yikes!
"Little Ceasers."
"Mixing vodka and orange juice in the dough machine after close."
"1991."
– bardwick
Secret Shoppers
"Working as a cashier I missed a case of water underneath someone's cart and turns out they were a secret shopper or something... I had a couple days off and I came back to look at the schedule and was told I was fired"
– spiderman96
"A case of water is what, $4? They don't understand that it costs a lot more than $4 to replace an otherwise good employee? Even if you made that mistake once an hour indefinitely they still make absolute bank off your labour."
– quackerzdb
"I worked at Sam's Club for a couple of years as a cashier. Sometimes I had to work the exit door where I had to check peoples' receipts. It was surprising how much stuff was missed by the cashiers. AFAIK, no one was fired over any of it."
– imnotlouise
"I can resonate, I worked at a theme park and I was loved to one of those sh*tty pop up merch stands in kidsville. My shift finishes and someone comes over and asks to buy a drink. Till was already closed but they had kids so I obeyed and gave them a water. An undercover worker was near by and had me taken away to their theme park jail… over a water 😂"
– Particular_School190
So Little Time, Even Less To Do
"My first real job when I was 16 was at a burger joint. I watched an entire movie without pausing it during my shift, I was the only person there that day. Boss walked in as the movie was finishing and I had my feet up on the table. Came back a few days later to check the schedule and I wasn’t on it. Even more awkward because I was dating the boss’ daughter at the time."
– shittlebuffout
"I can relate. My last job was quality assurance position and when working in the receiving end it was a lot of waiting since I couldn't do anything until we actually got a truck in and someone unloaded it. Most of the time it was literally HOURS before anyone got around to unloading anything so I'd just be on my phone or something. But God forbid one of the auditors over me comes back and sees me. I could never get him to understand that since there were no trucks there was nothing to check. I'd offer to do work in another department until one came in but he didn't want me to do that either. He wanted me there waiting. With nothing to do. 🙄"
– AstalosMayhem
I Tell All
"I already had a new job lined up but it wasn’t starting for another 2 months so I was just trying to lay low and then give a 2 week notice. My old a**hole boss made one snarky comment too many and I couldn’t help myself. I put him on blast over some of his nefarious activities in front of our CEO. He fired me at the end of that week, but he was forced to retire a month later after everything I said was confirmed."
"I was a District Manager and we had this one customer that owed us a lot of money on change orders, but wouldn’t pay. My own boss was throwing up roadblocks preventing us from collecting. That seemed strange (obviously) so I did some digging and found out that the customer and my boss were old friends that went in together on some side business. Corporate hunting/fishing outfit or something like that."
"If this customer’s projects came in under budget, he would get large bonuses. He would sole source our company for all of his projects and always understate the scope. My boss would then stop me from collecting change orders. The guy would come in under budget, get his bonus, and use it to help fund their new business venture."
"I was willing to say “f*ck it I’m gone in 2 months anyway”, but the a**hole had the nerve to question my district’s revenue numbers on a conference call during a monthly P&L review, not knowing I knew what was going on. So I busted him and waited for the hammer to fall."
"I don’t know what happened to the customer, but the a**hole had enough time in that they let him “retire” instead of being fired."
"I’m not exactly proud of it but…oh who am I kidding, f*ck that guy."
– asimovsroomba
Never Show Weakness
"Threw up on my first day."
"I also don’t live in America. I live in the netherlands. And i was fired because apparently working @ a boat cafe isn’t for the weak."
"it wasn’t a mobile boat. that’s what makes it funnier."
– angelicdollface
Worth It
"Went to see Grateful Dead at RFK stadium in DC. I told the manager not to schedule me that weekend but he did anyway. Told him I wouldn't be there. When I returned Monday I was fired. Worth it."
"Funny thing is my wife (gf at the time) was also scheduled and went with me to the show. She wasn't fired - but she quit when she found out I was fired."
"Darryl's Restaurant in Raleigh, NC. - by the way they had some pretty good food."
– fleetber
Ooops!
"Gave a spectacular demonstration of the top-heavy nature of a UPS truck. Rave reviews from locals, as the roadway was scattered with hundreds of packages. Management was unimpressed and suggested a different career."
– pullin2
"UPSiedaisy"
– salimeero
Ending Up Glad
"I took on a role that was not fit for me. It was my second job as a software developer, and the role was dev #2 at an early stage startup. As in, the entire dev team was me and another engineer."
"Startup life can vary greatly, but this was a financial tech firm near Wall Street. To say that it’s a lot of responsibility is an understatement. There’s no such thing as saying “that’s not my job” or “I don’t know how to do that”. If the company needs it, you have to do it."
"It was a good learning experience because I was pushed very far outside of my comfort zone, but it also gave me crippling anxiety and I got burnt out. I made a bunch of mistakes and was eventually fired over it. The job was so hard that I was actually relieved to get fired."
– tenaciousDaniel
Fresh Food
"Was working in McDonalds two years ago. I was the dude who was responsible of the fries. One evening this dude comes in asking for a regular order of a burger and fries. We serve him accordingly. Next morning he comes in screaming about how the fries he ordered yesterday were soggy and demanded to speak to me. By the state of him and his face he had clearly been drinking the night before."
"I went up to him and he started screaming at me, I started by apologising but then after him screaming at me for 10 mins I started defending the fries I had made. He said “Do you think I am lying just to get a refund, I just had the fries before coming here and they were soggy.""
"One of the other staff members who was working the till recognised him from the night before. Turns out he had left the fries in his car the whole night while he was out drinking and still expected them to be fresh and crispy the next morning. I lost it and kicked him out."
"Two hours later the owner of that franchise comes in and fires me for kicking his NEPHEW out of the place. All the other staff members were on my side but he threatened fire them as well if they had a problem with his decision. The place closed down because they couldn’t find people to work there as the owner kept firing people for petty reasons"
– kingbatuk013
"This reminds me of egg guy. I used to work at a little diner, and every Sunday this old guy would come in and get scrambled eggs to go. And every Sunday, about 3 hours later, he would cone back with the old eggs and ask for fresh ones. We always made them because there was clearly something not right with him. I explained a few times to just come and buy the eggs later, we serve breakfast all day, but he still did this."
– SmudgeZelda
Don't Want You Here
"Pretty sure they were just wanting to get rid of me. I was working at a meat market/deli store and I was called on my phone after work hours by the owner to tell me he was letting me go because I upset a customer that day."
"It was Saturday which were just half days but incredibly busy. An older man and his wife had ordered something chicken so I wrapped it up, priced it, and gave it to them to take to the register. Well he tells me he wanted the breaded chicken whatever. I say, oh sorry she didn't specify breaded but I'll get you the correct chicken. I unwrapped what I gave them and put it back in the case, throw away the wrapping paper and do it all quickly because there were people waiting in line."
"So I get the breaded chicken wrapped and priced and hand it back to them. The wife asks is this the chicken whatever and I say it's the breaded chicken whatever. I swear I didn't say it with nasty tone just affirming that it was breaded. Well the husband gave me a dirty look and they leave."
"Well the owner calls me later that evening to fire me because he was pals with that old guy. I file unemployment, the owner fights and I guess he tells the agent what he thinks happened because when the agent called me. I was telling him my side and the agent tells me, "Well the owner said you did this thing and that," and I tell the agent the owner wasn't even there that day and him and that customer were friends. I think that sealed it in my favor because I got approved."
– Glass_Chance9800
Work places can be so unfair!
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
We all... could be a Dateline NBC villain.
Life pushes us.
Of course, there are also times when accidents happen and we prove life is fragile.
One never knows what actions they will one day be responsible for.
More deep breaths should be taken.
Redditor BBQPancake wanted to hear about the times people almost let the devil win, so they asked:
"What was the closest you've gotten to killing someone?"
Everytime someone CHOOSES not to use a turn signal, I roll the dice if this is the moment.
No Hazards
lauren conrad car GIF by The HillsGiphy"Dude was changing his tire on the side of the freeway about half past midnight, dressed in dark clothes, no hazards on, and sitting halfway into the right lane. Almost splattered that dude."
Flooded_Strand
Totally Weird Experience
"11:30 pm Remote country road with no streetlights. There’s a tiny traffic island in the middle of the road and I see what looks like a slightly different-colored silhouette standing there. By all rights, I should not have seen him there but something in my brain clicked and swore there was a figure standing there so I slammed on my brakes as the figure jumped out in front of me, car stopped about 2m away."
"He smiled really sinisterly and started walking towards the car, I reversed and made to move around him slowly and he jumped in front again, I managed to drive on the wrong side of the road to escape him."
"A minute down the road I stop to flash my lights at every passing car to warn them and I sh*t you not the second car that passed was a cop and I explained what happened. I circled back a minute later and saw the dude on the side of the road in cuffs. Totally weird experience."
HeyMrCow
SLAM!
"When I passed my driving test many years ago, I asked the instructor if he had any advice for a new driver. He warned me that if I ever saw a ball roll into the street to immediately hit the brakes because there was a good chance a kid will follow. I never forgot that and have religiously followed it ever since."
"A couple of years ago I was driving down a residential street and it happened again and something in my mind told me to SLAM on my brakes and so I did. I came to a stop just feet from a really little kid who was completely frozen in terror."
"That driving instructor is probably dead of old age by now, but wherever he is, I hope he understands that he saved that little kid's life and saved me a lifetime of guilt and heartache."
MaybeADumbass
The potatoes were stuck
"Pneumatic potato cannon. My friends and I were shooting it in my backyard. Must have launched off dozens of potatoes at this point. We decided to stuff 3 potatoes in the barrel. When we open the valve to shoot it nothing happened. We were sitting around 60 psi and had no launch."
"The potatoes were stuck. My friend went to look down the barrel. I saw what was going to happen and lifted the back forcing the barrel into the ground. At that time the potatoes shot out and left a small crater in the ground."
ELONGATEDSNAIL
I Shudder
shooting breaking glass GIF by PhazedGiphy"I was fermenting homemade kombucha in a tightly closed bottle. Which I forgot to burp. One day a bottle exploded, while my mother-in-law was in the kitchen. Luckily, she was far from the bottle at the moment and got only a scratch on her hand, but we had to dislodge glass shards from the walls. I still shudder from a thought of what would happen if she were closer."
nazanar
Closed bottles and pressure, that is a toxic mess.
Take shelter.
Avengers Unite
the avengers GIFGiphy"Every time I drive in Sydney on a weekend 4000 people either wanna walk out into traffic without looking or cycle onto main roads without pausing or merge into my lane without indicating/checking. By staying in defensive driving mode I've saved more lives than the Avengers."
RGH81
6 Inches
"Was on a film set working when a mentally unstable person with a knife approached me and another crew member."
"Was forced to take a swing at him with a gobo arm (it's essentially a metal rod with a metal knuckle on the end of it). Swung hard enough that if it connected, would have caved in this dude's temple."
"Just missed, and it coming so close must have jolted the guy back to reality and he took off. So closest I came to killing someone was about 6 inches."
Ringlovo
A Few feet from the Girl
"Used to work a delivery job. One afternoon, I'm driving back to work in the old POS delivery van and some girl bolts across the road (presumably to catch a bus that had pulled over up ahead)."
"Slammed on the brakes and came to a sliding stop completely sideways in the middle of the road no more than 2 or 3 feet from the girl. I still think about it sometimes, it was a heavy old Ford van, with no ABS. If I'd been speeding even slightly I think I would've hit her."
ZatyDaddy
Madre de Dios
"Driving a loaded truck, probably about 10,000 lb or so, at the speed limit. Traffic in the oncoming lane is at a standstill. Some [censored] decided he was too important to wait with everyone else and pulls out, face to face with me, at very short range. I swerved hard right, didn't really expect to miss him but somehow did."
"Then swerved hard left to avoid the people on the sidewalk, somehow missed them too. Didn't think you could make a truck do that. Apparently, my passenger (the owner of the truck I was driving for) didn't think it was possible either. I learned some new swear words in Spanish and what sounded like the prayer of thanks to Madre de Dios."
philzar
Fired
New Girl Facepalm GIF by HULUGiphy"High school friend's dad wanted to teach us how to shoot. Went to the range and when he wasn't looking I grabbed the pistol and tried the John Woo sideways grip shot. It flew out of my hand and the bullet ricocheted off the side wall. That was my last time to ever fire a gun."
eguez780
We really need to be vigilant.
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
As much as most of our favorite movies and books like to portray beautiful, functional, unconditionally loving families, we didn't all come from households like that.
It can be especially hard to be singled out by your family, functional or not, as the root of all its problems.
Redditor Yuizun asked:
"How did you become your family's 'black sheep'?"
Family No Matter What
"My family on one side shares a toxic belief that no matter how bad someone treats you 'family is family' and you continue to associate anyway."
"My parent on that side was abusive, so as an adult, I chose to not have that parent in my life. At first, I was given the 'Yeah, they were wrong and treated you horribly, but...family' speech by a few relatives, but I stayed firm on staying away from this parent."
"I'm now basically disowned. I guess family is family unless you refuse to deal with your abuser, then you aren't family?"
- Orchidforever
Not the Right Kind of "Successful"
"I didn’t go to medical, dental, or law school, lol (laughing out loud)."
- Additional-Brief-272
"I don't want to be that guy, but I'll one-up you."
"My brother is the black sheep because he's not a surgeon. He decided to be a pediatrician. My father was actually disappointed in him."
- GeneralGrueso
Adoption Troubles
"I was adopted at birth. Black Sheep Status attained!"
"My parents 'settled' for an adopted child after failing to conceive a biological one. S**tty for me that they finally got pregnant with the long-desired biological kid very shortly after my adoption."
- 1derHamster
Age Gap Issues
"I'm kind of the automatic black sheep because of my age. I'm the oldest grandchild in the family and my mom had me when she was very young so by the time her siblings had children I was already 13."
"So I'm kind of an island of my own experiences in a different phase of life than everyone... too young to really hang with the adultier adults and too old to hang with all my cousins who are 13+ years younger than me."
"Growing up, it was very isolating. It's gotten a bit better now that all of us are older, but I still don't really feel like I belong especially well anywhere."
- HeraPlum
Being Introverted
"Being an introvert in a very extroverted family."
- ApplesPeaches
"Try being introverted at home, and extroverted at work, while your family knows this."
"So it's always just, 'We know you can do better, why are you always so quiet around us?'"
- Martina313
The Sibling Shadow
"When my older sister set the bar too high starting in second grade."
- FiremanBillBradley
"My brother was always in trouble at school. I was quiet and too shy to do anything but get my work done but whenever there was trouble in my classroom it was always said by a passing teacher, 'Oh, that's x's sister, bound to be her fault.'"
- Valuable_Recipe_1387
Making Big Moves
"I moved to Japan, which I thought was fine, but in my family's eyes I am the same as Al-Qaeda."
"No joke."
"The day before I moved to Japan, my dad said to me, 'IF YOU HATE AMERICA SO F**KING MUCH, WHY DON'T YOU JUST MOVE TO IRAQ AND JOIN AL-QAEDA!'"
"Like bro, chill the f**k out, I'm moving to teach English, gawd dayum."
"My parents have since calmed down, but my 24-year-old sister basically called me a traitor the last time we talked, and my 27-year-old sister said I'm a f**king id**t for moving to a country that isn't even free."
"My parents still make fun of Japan constantly and tell me they will never ever visit me here (to which I said cool, I guess I'll never see you again, because I'm not going to America until you visit me here) so yeah."
"Somehow I'm the black sheep for just like, doing what I want."
- Particular_Stop_3332
Mental Health Stigma
"I was open about suffering from severe depression."
- LadySygerrik
Toxic Family Members
"For refusing my sister's toxic behavior in my life."
"My family is the kind of family where the saying 'family is family' really is implemented."
"However, not with me. I tolerate what I want. If you are a piece of s**t, you don't deserve to be in my life. My family did not accept that and well, baaaah."
- Kitasuki
The Wrong College
"It was a long time ago... but my older sisters were attending Wharton and MIT at the time. The best I could do was Carnegie Mellon. I still remember the look of utter disappointment on my parents' faces."
- PluckPubes
Unapologetic Lifestyle
"Pursuing my constructive life passions and even morphing them into my work, making a good living at it, and being happy and unapologetic about it."
"Instead of doing something my parent thought I should be doing instead, something that wasn’t a 'waste of my time' like a 'real' job."
"I’m the only one of my siblings without a DUI or any other legal issues. Still the black sheep."
- LivingWithWhales
Breaking Generational Cycles
"For being significantly more mentally stable and responsible, and also not enabling or making excuses for a problematic relatives behavior."
- missesalchemist111
The Unplanned Pregnancy
"I was born and had needs and that was it."
- Sunsa249
"I was born as a result of high school sex. That was my fault. They weren't ready for me. Then I had needs like education and medical care and that was just asking too d**n much."
- literally_lite_rally
Black Sheep by Association
"By being born to my mother who was already a black sheep because she was born five years after her four siblings as a 'pleasant surprise.'"
"Most people don't become the black sheep. They're born it."
- Disig
Supportive Siblings
"Supporting my sibling when my stepparent was continually unfair about them. Went from being the unwilling favorite to ‘She Who Must Not Be Named.’"
"Thankfully my in-laws are amazing!"
- bad_dancer236
From ridiculous and petty reasons to larger social issues that a child never could have chosen for themselves, people have been turned into black sheep for all sorts of reasons.
The common thread for each of these people was their decision to value themselves over how they were being treated.
Clearly, the people viewing them as the black sheep didn't like having boundaries enforced around them.