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Most folks are familiar with the concept that it’s maybe best to not know “how the sausage is made,” which applies to actual sausages as well as most jobs. After all, anyone who has worked knows that there are always going to be some things we keep hush hush, but it can be a bit disconcerting to realize that this is true at nearly every company on the planet.
Someone asked “What's a secret in your job that people aren't supposed to know about?” and netizens spilled the beans. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own examples in the comments section.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
You can have multiple degrees and be profoundly stupid.
Ralph Watkins 1 month ago
In the military we talk about toxic leaders. People who gain rank by hook or by crook & then run their unit into the ground. Folks say that the VA Healthcare System should be run by veterans. Putting veterans in charge will improve care. Guess who gets administrative jobs in the VA. Those old toxic military officers.
Babs McGurk 1 month ago
If you've ever worked with academics, this will come as no surprise to you.
Rinso The Red 1 month ago
In general, intelligent people are just better at rationalizing their beliefs.
Huddo's sister 1 month ago
I don't think that's a secret, especially when you read social media
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#2
The mark up on supplies in the medical field is criminal.
#3
I’m your IT guy. I just google everything. I’m just good at googling.
Grenelda Thurber 1 month ago
But you know what you're looking for and know the right answer when you see it. That's what pays the bills.
#4
I was a server at a chain barbecue restaurant. Yummy food, & they played blues all day. The secret was what they put in the potato salad that was so good… celery seeds. When I was first hired & doing training, they told us we would lose our jobs if we told anyone. It’s been > 25 yrs, I think I’m safe to blow the secret. 😂.
#5
Restarting your computer will fix so many problems you call your IT dept for when you don’t restart the damn thing for 8 months….
William Teach 1 month ago
Way back when I worked for a big wireless company restarting was the first thing we did, which often fixed it. Usually by taking the battery out and putting it back in. Breaking that circuit.
#6
Working for giant companies, it’s comical how many systems are raggedy messes of bare-bones functionality. All available money gets thrown at certain projects, leaving everything else to work on complete shoe-strings.
#7
Most family members have no idea what's best or even good for their loved ones with dementia.
A lot of times, they make things worse.
Huddo's sister 1 month ago
True, because there isn't as much support for them as there should people. Often they try to take on more than they should, or they hear from doctors in a clinical sense without knowing what that means as far as actually caring for them. They also may not understand why nurses or carers do things the way they do but don't think to as before judging. Unfortunately not all nursing home staff are as well trained as they should be though, or there just aren't enough of them for the actual amount of care needed, as recent inquiries have found.
#8
When you bring your 5 kids in for Halloween costumes and leave 20 opened packages all over the dressing room floors for the employees to try and clean up and match all the pieces back in their bags, you WILL be remembered, you will be talked shite about, and when you need that one piece to compete everything, we're not going to have it, and it looks like no other stores in the area have it either.
Susan 1 month ago
When I used to work retail and a customer was rude to me I would tell them I would go look in the back for whatever item they needed. Then I'd sit down and take a nice long break after which I'd go back out to tell them that I couldn't find any. But if someone was nice I'd call every store in the area and arrange free shipping for them. Remember to be nice to workers!
#9
Health insurance has been going on a tear with denying claims/services, even with all of the boxes checked. The billing department at my place has straight up been hung up on multiple times trying to get answers.
ScootyPuffJr 1 month ago (edited)
This should be so much higher up. My pain management team actually used the words "s**t out of luck" last week while talking to me since my insurance company has denied all of our claims and appeals to move forward with necessary procedures while I'm in horrendous pain with no answers. Thanks, United Healthcare!! I hope there's a hell so you can all burn there someday.
#10
When I was temping for a large company, I was told if anyone called to say any of their property / vehicles had been damaged they couldn’t make an insurance claim because they weren’t covered, when in fact they were but the company didn’t want their premiums to increase and caused problems with their budgets. They pissed me off so much treating me like c**p, so I told everyone who called the truth and to put their insurance claims in. Then I walked out. Haha!
#12
I don’t have to serve you as a crew memeber.
I had to use this once.
Lady was rude and horrible and recorded me cussed me out
she threw a frosty at me
I quickly gave her card back and told her I’m not serving you have a great day shut and locked the window
and worked form the first window until she decided to leave my drive thru.
#13
The IRS doesn't have the budget to enforce tax law, and will drop any issues they feel would cost more than they will collect. There has been more than one instance where a client comes to us after years of arguing with the IRS and we will literally just reprint their prior letters on our letterhead to have the IRS drop the whole matter.
#14
IT guy. The whole "have you tried turning it off and on again" thing isn't just us being lazy.
Like 70% of all problems genuinely get fixed by a restart, but we can't just say that because management thinks "real IT work" needs to look more complicated. So we remote in, click around a bit, maybe run a basic diagnostic, then... restart your computer.
Stephanie Did It 1 month ago
Suppose you never turned off your vehicle, but kept it running continually while keeping it fueled or charged--would you expect that to go on indefinitely without problems cropping up?
#15
A lot Hospitals may look good as a patient. As a mechanical engineer and pipefitter, the amount of money that gets siphoned away from the mechanical side. These places are literally running off the phrase:
“Two bolts are holding back catastrophe”
You wouldn’t believe how true this is for many things we romanticize.
schools and hospitals are in a rough spot, at least by me in Chicago.
Shelby Moonheart 1 month ago
My hospital looked a bit run down after COVID. The care was still great but I could tell the building was not maintained as well.
#16
It’s insanely easy to be a “bestselling” novelist, and just because you are doesn’t mean you make any money. I’m a true-blue USA Today Bestselling Author and I’ve made $5ish in 2024.
Huddo's sister 1 month ago
Is this because there is no real authority on the term 'best selling'? I vaguely remember hearing something about that. You would think it would have a criteria based on actual sales but I have a feeling it's not.
#17
We regularly come *this* close to either poisoning everyone for 50 miles around or blowing a football field sized crater in the ground then poisoning everyone for 50 miles around.
Source: operator at a midsized chemical plant.
#18
If your 2 year old doesn’t want to paint because they’d rather do something else, we can’t force them. If you keep complaining and being nasty because you want fridge art, we will do your child’s art and put their name in it so you can stop complaining.
Big Chungus 1 month ago
We switch out the one piece of art on the fridge each season. We have stainless steel so the only magnetic part is a small side panel that barely juts out.
#19
Many sales guys are the guys that never grew out of the frat house, but the ones that make bank every single year are the guys that really listen and understand someone's motivations without them spelling it out. Those folks know what's important to their customers and their boss and quietly find a way to make everything work for everyone involved.
The guy that's the life of the party, knows everyone around, and loves making connections can do well in sales, but the quiet, emotionally intelligent, and detail oriented guys will make $150k+ every single year selling just about anything out there.
#20
If you ask internet customer service reps politely to credit you for every day of outage in your area on that billing cycle you can easily get 70% discount on your bill. Most outages happen overnight and nobody notices but most providers keep record of them.
#21
Night shift gets more s**t done because we're able to wear headphones while daytime isn't. We focus on our work while listening to podcasts while AM will spend hours worth in bathroom breaks.
Joshua David 1 month ago
Not where i work. I have to go in early every day to get place ready for opening. Our night shift likes to play poker amd do NOT §HIT! The boss loves the kids at night and when i say something I GET IN TROUBLE. Truth.
#22
Most meetings could honestly just be an email, but we have them anyway to look productive.
#23
When I tell you to turn the router off and on again, it's not because I have no idea what is going on and hope the issue will sort itself out. There are all kinds of logs where I can see what the problem is. When you restart the router, these logs get updated.
Also, when you lie and tell me you restared the router already a bunch of times and it didn't resolve the issue, I can tell that you didn't - the logs are right there, and the last time it was restarted was 3 months ago. I can't tell you that I know you are lying, but it definitely goes in the documentation so everyone knows that everything you say needs to be double checked.
Vanessa MacKenzie 1 month ago
Same with your fibre box. If you haven't turned it or the router off in months, it builds up bits and pieces of software from updates/upgrades that can slow your entire system and wear it out faster. A refresh of your internet once a month is a healthy way to keep it going longer.
#25
How often IEPs aren't followed, how often staff are attacked by students(sometimes very seriously injured), how often teachers and/ or staff make fun of the students they serve.
Diolla 1 month ago
For my fellow non- Americans: An Individualized Education Plan (or Program) is also known as an IEP. This is a plan or program developed to ensure that a child with an identified disability who is attending an elementary or secondary educational institution receives specialized instruction and related services.
#26
Any part I can get, you can get too. The only difference is I mark it up by 30%.and then charge you labor and taxes.
#27
That fancy touchscreen thermostat we installed in your office is just a screen you are changing the number on. The logic controller we installed in your heating/ac unit uses a different sensor and is predetermined what temperatures it is set at.
#28
Most elevators in the United States do not get maintained properly. I used to work for an elevator company and they would only limit us to a few calls a day because they didn't want to give the impression that something was wrong with their elevators. They didn't want to lose those contracts for those elevators and maintenance. Once in a while I would say maybe three four times a month we would find an elevator that was really in bad shape. Every time we would put it out of service the next day it would be in service again not sure who put it back in service but someone did. Even if we reported it nothing would get done no would check the cameras or anything. It was better to take a risk and not have people complaining about having to use the stairs even if it cost them their own safety. I learned to keep my mouth shut and do what I was told I was close to retirement and didn't want to lose that.
ScootyPuffJr 1 month ago
I've been trapped in elevators twice, and the one where I work now breaks down weekly, has started on fire, and has dropped a few floors with a coworker inside it. Stairs for the win whenever possible!
#29
I answer the phone a lot and if someone asks for me I say I’m unavailable and send them to voicemail.
Shelby Moonheart 1 month ago
If I pick up my phone and someone askes for me by my legal name I say that that person isn't available right now. Can I take a message? They usually hang up.
#30
There are rats in the kitchen.
What do you think ?
Cosmos 1 month ago
The older I get, the less that surprises me about how the world is held together by gum and 2 sticks while the richest of the rich get richer. It's a new gilded age.
Stephanie Did It 1 month ago
I always say most things are now held together with tissue paper and spit.
Load More Replies...
BookFanatic 1 month ago
Sorry, but sometimes libraries really do recycle books out if we can't mend or donate them elsewhere.
Lost Panda 1 month ago
Part of my job is translating Japanese to English and vice versa between us and the parent company. I don't know most of the kanji, so... you get a rehashed version of what Google or Deepl says it means
Cosmos 1 month ago
The older I get, the less that surprises me about how the world is held together by gum and 2 sticks while the richest of the rich get richer. It's a new gilded age.
Stephanie Did It 1 month ago
I always say most things are now held together with tissue paper and spit.
Load More Replies... BookFanatic 1 month ago
Sorry, but sometimes libraries really do recycle books out if we can't mend or donate them elsewhere.
Lost Panda 1 month ago
Part of my job is translating Japanese to English and vice versa between us and the parent company. I don't know most of the kanji, so... you get a rehashed version of what Google or Deepl says it means
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