
We've all heard some conspiracy theories about certain businesses, most of which are outrageously false.
That laundromats are simply a facade for shadier practices (including, not so ironically, money laundering) or that the Coca-Cola company invented "New Coke" with the express purpose of improving sales on original Coke.
But every now and then, we can't help but wonder what really goes on behind closed doors in certain professions.
And are eager to hear all the juicy tidbits from people working in that industry.
Redditor WoOoOoOoShHhHh opened the door for people from a wide range of professions to share some of their juiciest secrets, by asking:
"What’s an industry secret in the field you work in?"
Literal Money Grabbing Machines
"I design slot machines for casinos."
"Don’t play slots."- psychfan5
Speak When Spoken To!
"I'm an attorney."
"The secret is shut the f*ck up."- --IIII--------IIII--
They Are In Good Hands
"Managed boarding and grooming kennels for 8 years."
"The secret is that the employees actually do love your pets too."
"Even the difficult ones, most of us realize they just miss their people."
"The number of times I’ve weeped when a pet died, or spent way too many hours comforting a dog with separation anxiety, or spent hours off the clock with a boarder who needed to be rushed to a vet office, wouldn’t trade it for the world."
"Some pets just suck though, not gonna lie."- breadandbirds
They Just Want To Go Home!
"I'm a server."
"No matter how much we insist it's 'okay' that you are keeping the entire restaurant open after we've closed, please know we are 100% lying."
"We will get fired if we deviate from anything other than pure delight that you are keeping us from going home."
"We dread it."
"Please don't believe us."- MorddSith187
Don't Be Fooled By The Price
"I used to work in jewelry."
"Most of the prettiest gemstones are also very affordable."
"Tanzanite is a beautiful purple and looks nicer than amethyst."
"Topaz comes in lots of colors, including a pretty blue color which can be as nice as aquamarine."
"Opals aren't as brightly rainbow hued as they look in pictures."- rubicks56
What Are You Looking At?!?!
"Almost every hairstylist gets the heebie jeebies when we shampoo your hair and you just stare up at us."
"CLOSE. YOUR. DAMN. EYES at the shampoo bowl!"- picklemetimberzz
You're More Qualified Than You Think!
"Used to screen resumes for small companies."
"Job 'requirements' are more of a wish-list situation."
"Never let some unchecked boxes deter you from applying, you have no idea what the applicant pool is like."
"The biggest boon, especially at small companies, is someone who legitimately cares."- TwoPesetas
If You Wonder What Makes It So Delicious...
"There is way more butter than you think in almost every dish you eat at fancy restaurants, and that is usually the reason you won't see the amount of calories in each dish."
"5 years as a chef in Italian cuisine head chef, 8 years in an Italian kitchen."
" f I could recomend one guide book for you all to have in your kitchen it would be Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat."
"Yes there are a plethora of others but this one is my personal favorite."- BackslashR
That's Why It Smells So Familiar!
"Former bath and body works associate here."
"The scents they 'discontinue' will come back with a different name and new marketing."
"They’re just recycling the scents."- xyenz08
Nothing Wrong With A Second Opinion
"Some therapists/counselors are on the wrong side of the couch, so to speak."
"If you feel your mental health provider is unhinged, they may very well be."- FriktionalTales
Hygiene Issues...
"I'm a forklift driver at a plastics manufacturing facility."
"We melt down various types of plastic into sheets, then a different department molds them into whatever the customer asks for."
"We're a food supply company, so that means everything has to be spotless, right?"
"When I worked in the molding department, the machines had toothed chains to hold the plastic in place while it was being molded."
"Those chains were constantly over greased, and the plastic would rub up against various sections, so at the end of every shift, no matter what machine I was on, I had to clean up big puddles of plastic powder/grease slime not only from the floor, but from key sections of the machine itself."
"Plastics manufacturing companies are constantly at war with each other to produce the least amount of scrap."
"In my region, we're #1 for least scrap produced."
"On paper, anyway."
"In reality, we throw away about 30-40 lbs of plastic every day."
"This is because the plastic we throw away is not able to be recycled."
"About 60% of the material is like this."
"Or because it would cost too much to grind up, the remaining 40%."
"Not only that, but you know how I said the place has to be spotless?"
"Well one of the supervisors on the other shifts chews AND SPITS into a trash can on the production floor!"
"Needless to say, I and my supervisor are trying to get him out of there, not just because of that, he's also the laziest man you've ever seen."
"Sits in the break room the whole shift then complains that his job is so boring."
"Remember these things next time you eat a prepackaged meal."- forklift_in_disguise
Don't Give In To Pressure!
"Mental Health Care /Healthcare worker."
"When hired, the company that you work for will try to dissuade you from forming a union."
"This is not only illegal, it would probably prevent at least half of the problems between the staff and the administration."-jironspoon
As NOT Seen On TV...
"Law enforcement, specifically policing, is not very interesting the majority of the time and certainly not like what documentaries, films and TV make it out to be."
"I'll give you some examples to compare of some of the biggest misconceptions/tropes out there perpetuated by the media coverage of criminal justice/law enforcement."
"MISSING PEOPLE CASES."
"The majority of the time, especially these types of investigations, are nowhere near as eventful as they are thought to be."
"In fact, typically all missing persons are located within 24-48 hours after being reported as such."
"Usually, this is because someone in the family or friend group of the missing person knows where the subject is but for whatever reason, a lack of communication or miscommunication has occurred."
"It is much less common for the subject of the case to have been a victim of foul play, but the media obviously cover the cases where a homicide or something else suspicious has occurred."
"MURDERS/HOMICIDES."
"These are often sensationalized, unfortunately, when covered by the media."
"Especially when there is a suggestion that the victim may have been victim to a serial killer or other dangerous unknown persons."
"In reality, most of the cases of this will have been the result of ongoing domestic violence, drug deals gone wrong etc., rather than being committed by a complete random and/or a serial killer."
"In short, it is far more common for someone to be murdered by a person they know and trust than someone they don't."
"TYPES OF CRIMES THAT ARE DEALT WITH."
"At least in the UK, where I live, from what I have heard is that many more of the calls received by police are more likely to be things like Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs), arson/house fires, robberies and misdemeanor offenses than they are to be much more serious offenses such as murder etc."
"However, obviously it seems that the media do not cover this kind of stuff since it doesn't have the same shock factor as homicides, but it is another way in which false expectations of the job of a police officer is perpetuated."
"Bottom line is that I just get frustrated with the fact that so many people seem to underestimate and under appreciate the hard work that comes with being in the forces, but also how the job is usually far more mundane than it is made out to be."
"Especially when that is the main reason people are attracted to the job."- PM_ME_SHIT_IDK
Exactly How "Doers Get More Done"...
"You can return dead plants to Home Depot."
"The handwritten markdowns on sales tags on merchandise that you see on the sales floor, if it’s in the middle of the month, you can ask for a bigger discount and will likely get it."
"Never ask at the end of the month, because all the markdown allowances are usually eaten up and you will likely not get the discount."
"There are cameras everywhere."
"Except the bathroom."
"You will get caught shoplifting by a loss prevention person, if they are at the store that day you are there."
"Otherwise, you can walk out with a lawnmower, and tell the cashier you paid at the other register on the other side of the store, wave an old Home Depot receipt at her and tell her to have a great day- and keep pushing the lawnmower to your car and drive off."
"If you return a faucet, every part better be in the box, otherwise, they will give you hard time-not! "
"Hell, you can return half cans of spray paint!"
"Also, if a sales associate is rude to you, don’t be afraid to call a manager on them while you're in the store."
"Those people are paid to be there to help you, especially in these departments:appliances, flooring, windows and doors, flooring, and kitchen/plumbing."
"All those sales associates are paid well."
"If you are lucky to have a Home Depot with a Kitchen design department in it, just fyi, those sales associates are the top paid people in the store."
"Why?"
"They know everything about most departments."
"Their hourly can top out at $42 an hour in some cases."
"The lowest hourly is $13-14, benefits are great."
"Very rarely does Home Depot hire management from the outside."
"They always promote from within the ranks."
"Every day is different."
"One day you might have two customers who are brothers in the paint department who start fighting and progress to throwing at each other five gallon buckets of oil-based primer on one another who end up being arrested, covered head to toe in white paint and the cops trying to figure out how to get them in the police car with all that paint all over them."
"OR You are taking customers to the vault in the back because a tornado is about to hit the store."
"So, most people who work there do not find it boring."- Southern_9098
Hearing secrets about certain industries divulged can be a blessing and a curse.
No one would complain about not wasting their money away on slot machines.
Though, health conscious people might not want to know what really goes into their food when they go out to eat...
Humans make mistakes.
It's part of the deal with life.
But some mistakes and choices can have huge repercussions.
The trick is to not dwell on the outcomes.
That dwelling leads to a lot of regret.
Redditor FroyoNecessary5999 wanted to hear about the things we could all change about the past, so they asked:
"What is something you did that you deeply regret doing?"
Sometimes I feel like my whole life is one big regret.
Time
"Putting time and efforts into relationships/friendships that I should have just let go the first chance I had."
illeatyoura***
"Alternatively, not putting enough time and effort into relationships/friendships that actually were worth it."
TCSK8
We just can't...
"Probably rejecting my grandpa when he wanted to play chess, he then fell from a roof like a week later and I never had the chance to play chess with him again, still bothers me that I kinda never had this moment with him.."
nemgtas
"I have this fear now, while my parents are still alive. And my psychologist says the most sensible thing: we can't spend every moment with the people that love us. We just can't. And they don't expect us to. It wouldn't be healthy. And so we will ALL have SOME moments where we have said no. And that's okay. Or else we'd be resentful."
fanghornegghorn
Good Night
"I was seven years of age, I had an argument with my mother the night before she died. Before I went to bed she asked me for a hug I told her NO and stormed off to bed. The next morning I woke up to find everyone in the house was gone, it was very surreal and confusing. My father came back in that morning crying and told me my mother had died of a brain hemorrhage."
"Never go to bed on an argument."
Kellbag91
Gift Horse
"When I was 7 or 8 years old, I snapped at my dad for getting me the wrong video game and I can still see the disappointment in his face. Haunts me to this day."
Caxozma
"I remember my grandma taking me to the mall as a kid, and I was getting super upset I couldn’t get this $50 Pacsun hoodie. $50 hoodies are common now, but it was very expensive then. I freaked out and even said I pay her back. We ended up going back for it. What haunts me most is I didn’t even wear it. I really don’t know why I acted that way and still feel terrible."
Cobonmycorn
Too Young to Know
"Not opening a retirement account when I was 18 like I was told to."
"That and not investing my money I made bartending in my 20s. When you're that young you don't think about things like that unfortunately."
buthomeisnowhere
I'm still at a loss about investing.
I need to figure that out.
Maxed!
"Use my credit card too much to buy things I didn’t need. Now I’m dealing with a maxed out credit card that’s killing me every month."
MrRontendo
Practice is Perfect
"I deeply regret letting my creative writing and piano playing skills go to sh*t. Ever since I entered the corporate world 19 years ago, it has consumed me, and I no longer feel passionate about those things. I stopped practicing everything. When I try to make myself do them, it feels like just that, like I am forcing myself and it is no longer fun. I feel like I’ve become a shell of my former self in so many ways."
La_Reina_Rubia
Too Young
"Getting married to my first girlfriend at 19. I rushed the relationship because it felt good to not be alone and I thought that I could help her with her depression and anxiety, was hoping to have kid with her as well. However as time went on she just got worse and worse and kept using her depression as a crutch to justify every shi**y thing she did."
"When I started experiencing depression I stopped trying to keep things together and we got divorced a few years ago. I still haven't recovered mentally from it and between that and the pandemic I feel like a shell of the man I used to be."
ancap_attack
Peace Out
"Being too loyal and putting up with poor treatment from so called friends to the detriment of my mental health... not anymore *itches."
"Cut them all out when I realized they were unable to respond to me in a healthy way and still expected me to be on default fawning mode."
No-Conference-6242
Biggest Lesson? Don't let life slip by.
Those who grew up between the '80s and early 2000s have a long memory of items and experiences that either went out of style or disappeared completely.
From early PC games to Blockbuster to favorite snacks, there's a lot to miss from childhood.
But the odd thing is how quietly some of these things went away, and how few people seemed to notice.
Feeling nostalgic, Redditor lukiiiiii asked:
"What quietly went away without anyone noticing?"
Top-Notch Abbreviations
"ROFL (Rolling on the Floor Laughing) dropped off of the face of the planet, and now we just go straight from LOL (Laughing Out Loud) to LMAO (Laughing My A** Off)."
"I've been using it way more lately because of this. ROFL; can't let the classics die."
- habofi2125
Save Those Box Tops!
"Actual toys in cereal boxes and Cracker Jack boxes."
- GuttMilton
The Early Facebook Years
"Facebook 'Poke' wars."
- Hot_buttered_toast
How the Times Have Changed
"People calling them 'camera phones.'"
- NecroJoe
Advancing Technology
"When you turn off the TV, how the image would shrink to a dot before slowly fading away."
- ConcreteCubeFarm
TV Connection
"When you turn off the TV and then you run your finger on the screen and hear the crackle and feel the static on the glass."
- iwannaberockstar
Positive Environmental Change
"Acid Rain."
"It was a huge environmental issue in the late 70s through the early 90s. Rain was acidic and damaged fertile areas among other things."
"In the US, there was much research done, and eventually industrial regulations were put into place. Companies were allowed to decide what approach they chose to take as long as the results showed the appropriate amount of reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions."
"Unfortunately, positive news doesn't sell, so news outlets did not do justice to reporting this success. As we went into the 2000s, hardly anyone remembered what was done."
- GurglingWaffle
Can We Say, 'Nom Nom Nom'?
"McDonald's all-day breakfast menu."
- EmeraldAlicorn
Old Pastimes
"The pandemic killed a lot more than just people. I really miss McDonald's all-day breakfast."
"And being able to go to Walmart at 2 AM."
- LyrMeThatBifrost
The Days of Landlines and Cords
"I live in a rural area and have to pay for landline service to have internet. Since I have to pay for something so stupid, I figured I'd have to get something stupid."
"...So I got the hamburger phone from the movie 'Juno.'"
"Not gonna lie, the landline has come in clutch a few times, and holding a hamburger to your ear is amusing every time. 10/10 would recommend."
- Meat_Skeleton
Late-night Grocery Runs
"I think people have noticed now but at the time, nobody noticed it was happening: the closing of 24-hour stores. I live in a major city and we don’t have a single 24-hour grocery store ever since the pandemic."
- anxiousfamily
"In a World Where..."
"Movie trailers with that deep voice guy [Don LaFontaine] doing the voiceovers."
- jonathonkarate
SoBe Drinks
"SoBe. I think the last time I had one was at Quizno's."
"[cue 'X-Files' Music]"
- kooshipuff
Gizzard the Taco Bell Dog
"Taco Bell used to have a chihuahua as their mascot. Little dude just disappeared one day, and anyone born after 2000 probably doesn't even know what I am talking about."
- To_Fight_the_Night
Google+
"Google+ was the only social media our school forgot to block on our laptops, so I used it a lot. RIP."
- AgentBieber
Some of these really brought back some deeply-engrained memories for the '80s to '00s kids, and it's true that many of them blipped out of existence quietly.
But if this teaches us anything, it doesn't mean that "out of sight, out of mind" also has to mean "out of heart."
And let's have a moment of silence for the vocal stylings of Don LaFontaine and Gizzard the talking Taco Bell dog.
We all know that the human body is very complex.
But even with all the recorded and available science, there are certain things about our bodies that continue to elude us, and medical experts can still get stumped about how the human form reacts unpredictably.
Curious to discover some of the mystifying yet unsettling truths about our anatomy, Redditor Hot_Banana_Ice-cream asked:
"What is a creepy fact about the human body?"
Now, observe this.
Visceral Reaction
"If you wear glasses which vertically inverts your vision long enough, your brain will correct it, and you'll see things normal. But when your take those glasses off, everything will look upside-down again until brain recalibrates again."
– shadow29warrior
Brain Assessment
"Our brain filters out a lot of what we see along with just straight making sh*t up based on extrapolation."
– AdmiralClover
The Experiment
"My favorite is the blind spot at the center of each eye, where the optic nerve is."
"A lot of people don't even know it exists, and even if they do, it is bigger than people often think."
"And it's also really easy to demonstrate to people if you know how. It's one of my favorite bar tricks - all you need is a pen and a napkin to draw a cross and a dot."
https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/experience_jaune06.html
Alternate demo: https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html
"Edit: If it doesn't work, you're doing something wrong - not getting close enough, the image is too small on your phone, you're not closing the correct eye or not keeping your gaze fixed on the cross."
"It isn't because you don't have a blind spot. Unless you're a squid, you have a blind spot. All vertebrates have them."
– M0dusPwnens
The workings of our innards are out of this world.
The intestines are covered by a double "fleece" of peritoneum. See it like a blanket.
When your intestines get damaged for whatever reason, this blanket starts moving out of itself and crawling upwards towards the place which has the injury. It will stay there until the injury is recovered. And then move on again.
Maybe not the most creepy fact, but definitely interesting in my opinion.
Do Do That Doo-Doo
"We don't just have one anal sphincter. When poo comes along it passes another inner sphincter which isn't under voluntary control."
"Sensory cells can detect whether you're about to pass gas or solid. From toddler age on, you can decide to go or not to go. If the time isn't right (e.g. at a friend's house or no toilet nearby), the inner sphincter can push the poo back and store it there for later."
"That's why sometimes if you need to do a number two but don't go, the urge goes away after about 20 minutes later. (But seriously, go if you can. Constipation risk.)"
"Gas can't be pushed back so easily, so we sometimes toot by accident when moving or engaging the core."
– bmb00zld
The Same Lining
"The inside of your cheek and your rectum are lined by the same type of tissue."
– GasTsnk87
You don't always have control of your body.
Taste Of Curiosity
"The front of your tongue is curious, constantly patrolling, and autonomous. It chases the dentist around your mouth and you aren’t even aware of it. So embarrassing and weird/creepy."
– AdeleBerncastel
Licking Partner
"In dental school, I learned this fact when practicing taking impressions on each other. My buddy’s tongue kept licking my finger. I asked him to quit licking me, and he was like 'I can’t help it!' And then we switched places and my tongue wouldn’t leave him alone.And for those of you that don’t think your tongue does this: some of you are right. But the majority of you just think your tongue is behaving, but it is all over the place without you even knowing."
– recoveringcultmember
Dancing With The Dead
"Bodies will move as they’re coming out of rigor. I’ve been bumped by a few (I’m a coroner). Bodies can also make sounds as the remaining air/ gas leaves… 2am in the morgue and I thought I was in COD zombies."
– Jar-JarShotFirst69
Wonder of wonders.
The Only Way Out
"When you get laser tattoo removal the ink doesn’t disappear, you pee it out."
"Your body’s immune system breaks down the pigments of ink and it flows in your blood stream, gets processed through your kidneys, then you pee out the ink."
– Fine_wonderland
Our soul-containing vessel is a mysterious wonder unique to us.
We should do whatever it takes to take great care of it because it's the only one we've got.
If we don't, they might turn on us.
People Explain Which Companies They Wish Would Go Out Of Business To Help Improve Society
When the global pandemic hit in march of 2020, countless companies saw themselves going under.
Sadly, some companies, from a wide variety of businesses, simply couldn't adapt to working under the parameters of social distancing, or couldn't adapt in time, resulting in them permanently closing their doors.
Many people were sad to see these companies close, while many others were even sadder that some companies managed to pull through and stay open.
Indeed, long before Covid-19 wreaked havoc on the world, some companies and corporations people felt were actually detrimental to society would be doing the world a favor by going out of business.
Redditor param_T_extends_THOT was curious to find out which companies people fell into this less than prolific category, leading them to ask:
"Which company could go out of business tomorrow and it would be to the betterment of this world?"
Nothing Express About It
"Express Scripts."- BadDadJokes
Wildly Different, Yet Equally Unnecessary
"Privatized prisons."
"Glitter manufacturers."- Sped-Connection
Where To Even Begin?
"The church of Scientology?"- dipshipsaidso
Beware The Pyramids
"Any MLM bullsh*t."- Work-Alone
Taylor Swift Would Probably Agree
"Ticketmaster."- Tynesand
You Really Want To Trust Them With Your Money?
"HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world, is a criminal enterprise:"
"In 2012, the bank paid $1.9 billion to settle charges brought by U.S. authorities that it had failed to prevent money laundering by Mexican drug cartels."
"In 2013, HSBC was fined $1.92 billion by US and UK regulators for its role in the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), a benchmark interest rate."
"In 2014, the bank was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating sanctions against Iran, Sudan, and other countries."
"In 2018, the bank was charged by the US Department of Justice for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering regulations."
"Also, Nestle."- alecsputnik
Amen!
"Joel Osteen's ministries."- ststeveg
Maybe All Big Pharma?
'Seems like the general consensus is Nestle, but I’ll be weird and say DuPont."
"They’re the reason every living human on the planet has Forever Chemicals running through their bloodstream."-poppidypoppop
"Blinded By The Light"...
"Everyone one that makes blindingly bright low beam bulbs."- RetinaMelter9000s
One Bad Experience Can Ruin It Forever
"Mark's plumbing."- GreenieMachinie93
"Oh The Wells Fargo Wagon Is A Comin' Down The Street..."
"Wells Fargo."- Itchy_Focus_4500
Honestly, Can't Agree With This One
"F*cking TurboTax."- camilofl20
Absolutely Frightening
"Wagner Group.'
"Dirty mercenary army with soldiers for hire."
"They have caused chaos where ever they have gone."
"Syria, Central African Republic, Madagascar, Libya, Venezuela, mali, Mozambique and a few other places, they have no desire to see a peaceful world as that would financially cripple them as a organization."
"Look at what they are doing to the Ukrainian people."
"Despicable organization and they have zero moral compass."- Weary_Violinist_3610
Maybe all Credit Reporting?
"Experian, Equifax, and/or Transunion."
"Leeches on America."- compusmack
Can't Help But Say It, Did She Really Think "goop" Was An Appealing Name?
"Comcast & goop."- celeresaharano·
Be it poor customer service, questionable business practices, or just plain fraud, it's hard not to agree that any or all of these companies would not be missed should they close their doors.
After all, when a health and wellness brand openly tells you that some or all of its products may not actually improve your health or wellness, that just about says it all.
...even if Shakespeare in Love remains a romantic gem...