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There are a decent amount of companies that, if you have worked for them, you will avoid their services or products like the plague. Unfortunately, most places will fire you if you start telling the public about what goes on behind the scenes.
Someone asked “What is a corporate secret you can now safely tell because you don't work there anymore?” and ex-employees spilled the beans. From tips and tricks to how to get around customer support and hotel staff, to horrifying facts about what goes on in a fast food restaurant. So upvote your favorites, comment your thoughts, and keep learning!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Health insurance dude. When you file a claim, it is often denied because they're counting on you not escalating it. Once you do, your case goes to a "medical management group" which ought to be called the "we don't wanna pay" group.
Keep escalating and involve your doctor. Fight for the insurance you paid for.
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#2
I did data entry for a church before, digitalizing all their wills and donations. Since my NDA has long passed, I can say that it's ridiculous. People donating their entire wealth, millions upon millions to the church, even private estates and islands. There's even old money trusts from like 1800s still pumping in money.
It's a sham and these churches are filthy rich. And it's not even a "prosperity" megachurch.
#3
Never put your information into any online financial form that claims to comparison shop for you.
1. They don’t comparison shop for you.
2. They sell your info to 4-5 of the highest bidders and your phone will be blown up with calls and texts for weeks with people trying to sell you their finance stuff.
Sorry!
DarkViolet 10 months ago
So true. That happened to me with health insurance. The minute I submitted my information, my phone rang. And rang. And rang. I was averaging a call every 20 minutes for the next week. Never again.
NDAs are a lot more common than one might think. In the US, as of 2022, around one-third of all employed people have an active NDA at this very moment. So perhaps it’s good that there are anonymous outlets like the internet out there where people can share what goes on behind the scenes without risking their jobs.
While most exist to protect the company from the sort of things we see here, there are many that are just to limit the spread of “trade secrets.” However, given the sheer number of NDAs out there, it would appear that “trade secret” is a pretty loosely understood term.
#4
Worked in nursing homes for years. Not sure how “secret” this is but a couple things: most of the staff does actually care about the patients, we just have many. But you yelling and screaming at staff because of how we treat your parent is almost certain to make us care much less. The people who are kind and patient get better care for their parents every time.
Also lowkey: once your parent goes into a nursing home/independent living, they really do start to live a different life, with different social groups, norms, and daily routines. They usually adapt more easily than their kids do and when their kids visit and start hollering about every little thing, it causes the patient more stress and anxiety than anything else.
James Howell 10 months ago
This is so true. My Momma had to go into assisted living. I left her to become part of the community. I visit her regularly, and belong to a social page for the facility. My Momma is always at ALL the activities and Always smiling. She didn't want to go into the facility, but has blossomed into a thriving, happy, beautiful person. It's not always true for all, but you have to guide them into the positive aspects of their new life. AND, for the love of God, treat the staff as family members, they will recipricate!!!!
#5
Farmed salmon is Frankenfish. They are infested with sea-lice to the point that their eyes are eaten out and they have huge open sores on their skin. They are chock-full of growth hormone and antibiotics. The fish that die off by the millions from infection are still allowed to be sold for human consumption. I had a friend who worked as a diver for Grieg Seafoods, a Norwegian fish-farming company, and the videos he had were horrifying.
shackattack 10 months ago
Can confirm this having worked on fish farms all over Norway Scotland and Ireland. Don't eat farmed salmon they live a horrible deizie rinden life and it's destroying the environment around it .
#6
Not sure if it is all furniture stores, but they like to sell you stain resistant coating. It is literally a 6 dollar bottle of scotch guard in a spray bottle. We would charge 90 dollars per item sprayed.
censorshipsucks 10 months ago
Yep but that's a labour charge to do the work, so not totally unreasonable. Just overpriced.
That being said if something downright criminal is happening, most countries do have laws to protect whistleblowers. After all, unethical practices are, unfortunately, not always against the law. Indeed, legal experts have found that some companies make employees sign NDAs that they can’t legally enforce, for example having clauses that “prevent” them from complaining about discrimination or harassment.
#7
Former data analyst for an alcohol monitoring company. I won't say the name but they're the big one with the ankle bracelet that measures alcohol from your sweat.
Most of the time, the data is made up.
We get a VERY vague idea of how the alcohol is being expelled from their body through sweat. Sometimes it's enough to make some sense of it but most of the time we were "encouraged" to "find the event" through the noise or we would be fired. Because of this, I believe numerous people reported false information to the courts.
This has ruined countless people's lives. Their own and their families.
I quit before the end of my 90 day probationary period.
#8
I worked for a consulting service. 90% of our reports were just copy and pasted. We charged thousands for every one
#9
My aunt worked building chicken houses for large poultry companies. When you pay the extra couple dollars for free range eggs, you feel you’re doing the right thing. A lot of these companies have “free range” chicken houses that leave the doors open. The chickens can come and go as they please. However, the companies install large fans at the doors that make the chickens afraid to leave the chicken houses, forcing them to stay inside. The whole free range thing is ultimately b******t.
Ace 10 months ago (edited)
In the EU there are well defined rules about what Free Range does and does not mean. The scenario you describe would not be allowed, but would classify for 'Barn Raised'. In France there are also "Label Rouge" products , applied to all sorts of food production, which lays down even more stringent rules for chicken/egg rearing.
#10
Any lab who runs any type of genetic test on you is selling that data in one form or another.
#11
Used to work at a factory that made US military boots and shoes. Looking perfect was way more important than comfort. Some for the Navy were hard to get the back height right when sewing/forming the leather, so when the soles went on, they were adjusted to look level. Basically, the sole of a left or right would be much thicker than the other. I've seen some off by a half inch/15mm. I constantly brought it up to management, that it was essentially the same as having a piece of 1/2 inch board taped to the bottom of the boot, and would be extremely uncomfortable walking the 20 miles a day like they do. They didn't care as long as it looked good.
Luke Branwen 10 months ago
And yet the US military consumes so much money it could permanently house and feed all people in need.
#12
If you have a medical device that uses electricity, you can send your prescription to the electric company and they can’t legally ever turn your electricity off.
Edit: Since multiple people take everything completely literally here. I’m referring to if you don’t pay your bill they can’t legally turn you off. I’m by no means referring to maintenance, fire protection, or power outages. Idk why I need to explain this. Also idk if it’ll affect your credit score or anything along those lines.
#13
when people submit their videos to viral social media pages, they immediately sign the rights of the video away to the company. but people rarely ever read the fine print on the submission forms so don't realise
#14
An open secret at a big orange box retailer of home improvement goods I used to work at was that they would accept pitches for new products from inventors, demand a sample for consideration before agreeing stock it in store, then ship the sample to China to create a similar product with just enough changes to skirt patent law, copyright, etc.
#15
When I was young I worked at a meat processing/packaging plant. Hotdogs, bologna, pepperoni, etc. Not really a corporate secret I’m revealing. but the production of all that s**t was disgusting. Worse than you think.
#16
Worked for a major Railroad in the 90's. I worked in HazMat/Environmental. So making sure HazMat laws are followed and the environmental side was cleaning up HazMat spills.
They had fulltime staff that were lobbyist. When something really bad would happen; Railcar with nasty s**t in it crashes into a water way. The lobbyist job was to get the law changed so they didnt have to pay anything and even to correct it. The will do ANYTHING to keep from paying fines. If the state threatens to take them to court, they counter they will close all rail traffic in the state (as they own the rail).
#17
Wayfair will buy and photograph competitor's furniture and stuff that looks close enough to their own cheap s**t. We were told if a vase arrived looking like plastic c**p, to go to West Elm or Target etc and buy a ceramic better looking one. Same.with couches, chairs, and so on. They are a C**P company to work for and their goods are 90% garbage.
Anna Chandler 10 months ago
And where do they get off claiming they're cheap. I checked their website just once. They sell c**p at luxury prices.
#18
The cheap.dole orange juice, medium priced Tropicana and expensive naked juice are all the same s**t.
Annik Perrot 10 months ago
Actually, here, there are two kinds of juice: the "pure juice" and the one made out of watered down concentrate. "Nectars'' are made of fruit puree with added water and sugar.
#19
Hotel industry: of course club members get priority when it comes to upgrades, but even if you’re not a member, you are more likely to get a free upgrade if you list “Dr.” as your prefix.
#20
There's almost always mold in the ice machine. Both my S.O. and I have worked in many restaurants. You'll live but it's still gross. I always ask for no ice.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 10 months ago
We have a company that comes by every two weeks to clean ours out.
#21
The Radisson Hotel has a "Yes I can" policy. If they are capable of doing something for you as a guest and you ask directly, they are supposed to say yes and maintain a positive attitude towards providing you satisfying services. ALWAYS SHOW UP EARLY FOR CHECK IN AND ASK FOR AN UPGRADE. This is how I go from $250 a night in a regular room to $250 a night for a jacuzzi suite every time I travel.
censorshipsucks 10 months ago
Seriously doubt this will work at Radison in SA. Our attiude to business is the customer is a pain and no we can't do that.
#22
Used to work at Michael’s craft store.
There’s a quota for the amount of credit cards we can get customers to sign up for.
We have to try and convince them to sign up for credit cards or else we lose hours and get in trouble.
We’re told not to tell anyone about the interest rate as it’s very high, 32.5 percent APR rate.
We get an extra dollar in our paycheck if someone signs up for one.
We’re only allowed to sell it to people speaking English, even if we speak fluent Spanish or other languages.
Also for the rewards they say you get 5 dollar coupons ever 25 dollars you spend but that’s not true. That is only when you first sign up, after that it’s only 3 percent of every visit you go to Michael’s. It’s not really worth it. I worked there and I tried it and it only ended up making me spend more by trying to earn the vouchers.
There’s no way to change ur email or phone number for the rewards, when we change it in store it’s only per transaction and doesn’t permanently change.
Everything in the store is marked up to be expensive on purpose so if you use the coupons it will still be slightly overpriced but people feel like they’re saving.
The quality of their art supplies is bad because they stopped carrying good brands and started to only carry cheap brands owned by Michael’s that were made poorly and are incredibly expensive.
We have so many holiday items that are “ 50 “ dollars that are entirely made of styrofoam’. Look at the big Easter bunny for 50 dollars, break off an ear, it’s styrofoam.
Ken Beattie 10 months ago
Most store credit cards are borderline loan sharking. They all seem to be around that high 20s or low 30s interest rate. The "buy now and get it 12 months interest free" is inevitably on a card like this and the credit provider is banking on people failing to pay it back before the 12 months is up. After which the interest snowballs rapidly.
#23
I will flat out just say don’t trust any diamond grading report that is not GIA. I worked for another diamond grading lab that worked with retail jewelers and the boss would fudge the grades to help them.
censorshipsucks 10 months ago
honestly I doubt the average person can tell the difference between crystal glass and diamond, so ... who cares?
#24
I did data entry for a major telecommunications company 20 years ago. The sales representatives would file expense reports for so much c**p under “entertaining expenses” and the company uses this as their basis for tax reduction. For example, one sales rep was very good friends with a guy who was a branch manager for one of our customers. A couple of times a month the sales rep would host his friend aboard his fishing boat, and he would write expense reports to pay for their beer and refreshments and ice for their cooler and gas for the boat. All came under “entertainment expenses.” And since the guy was a customer, the sales manager signed off on it. There was all kinds of the stuff going on. The company also sponsored a national golf tournament and paid for entertainment expenses for customers who were executives from large corporations. The expense reports for these events came in, and they were 4 to 5 inches thick and had to be manually entered. So there we were, clerks, barely making enough to live on and were transcribing accounts showing that a vice president (customer of ours) would check into a luxury hotel, suite, and immediately send their clothes out for dry cleaning, order shrimp cocktails and champagne from room service, and my company would pick up the entire tab. Multiply this by about 300 other individuals. These people had generational wealth and they were highly placed into large corporations. The irony was that these were the people most likely to complain about welfare for low income people and yet they were getting all this paid for, and my company was using it to eliminate their tax. This is why you hear about about corporations not paying any tax, because of write offs like this. Don’t get me started on their conventions because that’s exponentially worse….
#26
If you've ever put your ID into a computer for a background check it's probably been circulated to others regardless of whatever cybersecurity claims the company doing the background check claims.
censorshipsucks 10 months ago
Not necessarily. In fact this is illegal in my country. We have a thing called Protection of Private Information Act which says they have to explicitly ask your permission. You can sue if you find out that they shared without permission.
#27
Rental car companies: the upgrade price is made up on the spot.
Maxigrod 10 months ago
Little story: wanna rent a car for a few days, look it up in the company site, cars were available and cost x. But, been near an office i went there figured i will get the car faster. So when i was there ask for same car, but price was Y, so.i said what i was already researched and they make something ti justified the price they give me. I stand up, said ok i will reserved online. Magically the price was matched.
#28
When a Verizon rep tells you they fixed something but to call back in 2 hours or 2 days, it’s because 8 times out of 10 they didn’t solve your problem but if you don’t call back in within 2 hours or 2 days depending on department it won’t affect their stats.
ETA: if ANY rep tells you that the credit department or ANY department can raise your finance limit (unless it’s an error), they are lying.
#29
Lululemon comes in straight from Hong Kong to the US. Mostly made in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Same with Mast Global, Lane Bryant, Torrid, Express, etc.
BrownTabby 10 months ago
That’s a secret? I assume all clothing companies’ stuff is made there unless they’re an explicitly ethical company, and often even then.
#30
I can't speak for other food/beverages, but I would safely assume it's the same ... i worked in a sauce factory. Kosher sauce is the same sauce, but the difference is when they are starting to cook it a rabbi is present there blessing it.
Brand name sauce and off brand sauce are essentially the same. Barilla and Aldi's are identical. Barilla ships out the door stacked nicely, pallet shrink wrapped properly. Aldi's brand ships out stacked terribly, with a thin wrap of shrink wrap. Thats where the savings is. Loading Aldi's sauce on to trucks you could guarantee there was going to be at least one or two pallets dumped.
What do you think ?
General Anaesthesia 9 months ago
BP is quickly losing its international outlook.
Load More Replies... Anony Mouse 10 months ago
A lot of these are meaningless if they don't name names. "I work for a health insurance company that blah blah blah." They are too vague to be interesting and can easily be made up. Watch: I work for a major fast food chain. The secret to our secret sauce? It's ketchup and mayonnaise. See? I just made that up. I work for a major software company - the password on our server is "password". I work for a car manufacturer. The seats are stuffed with recycled mattress fluff.
B Jones 9 months ago
People afraid of getting sued for liable or slander or whichever is written vs spoken. A lot have been around a long time like brand name vs store brand food...but a lot of this is probably true for most places, of course they're going to maximize profit and cut corner, every business does that
Load More Replies... 
KatZen 9 months ago
I was literally going to go to Home Depot then to Whole Foods to get some salmon for dinner. I shouldn't have read this. Ignorance is bliss.
Load More Replies... 
General Anaesthesia 9 months ago
BP is quickly losing its international outlook.
Load More Replies... Anony Mouse 10 months ago
A lot of these are meaningless if they don't name names. "I work for a health insurance company that blah blah blah." They are too vague to be interesting and can easily be made up. Watch: I work for a major fast food chain. The secret to our secret sauce? It's ketchup and mayonnaise. See? I just made that up. I work for a major software company - the password on our server is "password". I work for a car manufacturer. The seats are stuffed with recycled mattress fluff.
B Jones 9 months ago
People afraid of getting sued for liable or slander or whichever is written vs spoken. A lot have been around a long time like brand name vs store brand food...but a lot of this is probably true for most places, of course they're going to maximize profit and cut corner, every business does that
Load More Replies... KatZen 9 months ago
I was literally going to go to Home Depot then to Whole Foods to get some salmon for dinner. I shouldn't have read this. Ignorance is bliss.
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