Workers Spill 75 Industry Secrets In This Viral Thread

It’s no secret that the real action always happens behind the scenes. Think of how little we know about things unless we actually become a part of it; in that way, you are likely to never play slots if you've ever designed a slot machine.

Sounds like a metaphor, but it isn't. Recently, one Redditor posed the question “What’s an industry secret in the field you work in?” and amassed 82.4k upvotes. Comments started buzzing and reached a count of 38.3k, with people spilling all their industry secrets in plain sight.

From dentists to auto insurance agents and librarians, these workers couldn’t miss the opportunity to share some insider’s knowledge on simple things, like buying clothes at Goodwill.

#1

I’m a dentist. Here’s the lowdown on toothpaste.

As long as it has fluoride they are all basically the same.

When I was in dental school, the [Tooth paste brand] lady came by and said that everything that says [Toothpaste brand] on it is all exactly the same, the only difference is the packaging. So whether it says whitening, or gum protection, or whatever else, it is all exactly the same.

The exception is sensitivity toothpaste typically does have an extra active ingredient. KNO3, which helps with sensitivity.

Don’t ever feel obligated to buy the expensive toothpaste because you think it will be better for your teeth, just buy whatever you like best.

Image credits: therock21

#2

The fruits and veggies you buy at the grocery store... Wash them.

Image credits: mmmmpisghetti

#3

Knowing how to research the answer to a question is at least as or even more useful than knowing the answer to begin with. I made a living in IT for a decade with that mindset.

Image credits: bluebirdgm

#4

I’m a musician. It’s not really a secret but 90% of of our revenue is from merch. Spotify plays, show guarantees, etc, everything is menial in comparison to shirt sales. In fact, a big reason bands tour as often as possible is because we can sell more shirts when we’re in front of people.

Image credits: loocaswoodland

#5

As a beginner counselor I worked with a lot of children and adolescents. Consistently the discussion with my colleagues was how it was the parents who were the biggest problem and the kids were just adapting to a crazy environment.

Image credits: Tellurine

#6

A lot of librarians will waive your fines if you have an excuse and you don’t ask too frequently, even large fines. Also, librarians DON’T CARE about your fines and aren’t judging you. Please come back. We personally have more fines than you. Librarians are ALWAYS overdue with their books.

Image credits: itsmeEloise

#7

Former industry: commercial radio

It's never caller 5. It's the caller who sounds best on air

Image credits: DSlamAU

#8

Auto insurance agent. Please, for the love of god, don’t tell auto insurance agents more than you have to. They ask you a question, just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and answer the question as straight as you can. If you go on and on about your life story, you will probably end up saying something you don’t have to and making your rate higher, or getting yourself declined. We WANT to get you that policy as cheap as possible, only tell us what we need to know and don’t say anything else.

Image credits: TheoLuminati

#9

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.

Image credits: TwoPesetas

#10

The cocktail you just bought might cover the cost of the entire bottle we used to make it.

Image credits: www.reddit.com

#11

Not an industry I work in per se, but I used to be in a sales role. One of my customers was a milk bottling plant. I was somewhat surprised that they were putting the exact same milk in both organic and non-organic cartons. Turns out all of their milk is organic, but in order to not miss out on the sales of non-organic milk, they just bottle them differently and sell them at different prices.

Image credits: Atworkwasalreadytake

#12

Construction boy here. If your windows or sliding doors are tough to open and close. 9 times out of 10, we put your own dish soap on tracks and the thing works perfectly. It take 5 minutes and we charge 150. Dish soap people, its better than wd40 sometimes

Image credits: lyckadese

#13

As a former TSA worker airport security is alot of theater. TSA is constantly failing plain cloths inspections. I worked with a guy who got fired because someone showed him an ID with a picture of Micky Mouse on it and he let the person through because he wasn't paying attention.

Image credits: Askafishy

#14

Weight loss industry. This might be obvious, but most of our business comes from return clients after they've gained their weight back (and then some). To be clear, the plan isn't rigged to make you gain it back, but the fact that it happens easily as a result of dieting keeps us in business.

Image credits: responsible_hedonist

#15

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.

Image credits: xyenz08

#16

I’m a fossil replicator and apparently the industry secret is the fact that we exist. So many people are blown away to learn that most fossils they see in museums are replicas.

Image credits: Katy-L-Wood

#17

Former aircraft fueler. Don't check your pets in kennels. Especially in summer or winter. They are submitted to some very harsh environments, left on belt loaders in the sweltering heat right next to a running APU that's loud enough to deafen human ears, let alone a dog's. It's terrible. I always feel so sorry for them.

American Airlines will destroy your luggage. They get overloaded on carts, fall off on the way to the plane, and are left there to get run over by tankers and yes, fuelers, and rained on, then dragged to the edge of the ramp to sit all night while you arrive at your destination and wonder where the hell your bags are.

If your departure is delayed, 90% of the time it's us (the fueler). Look out the window to the right side if it's a small plane, left side if it's a really big plane. If there's a truck sitting under the wing, we're the reason you're late. Sorry.

Image credits: KingBadford

#18

At Goodwill, we don't clean anything that we sell, and we get some really gross stuff that touches everything else so next time you buy something from Goodwill, wash it well

Image credits: HellfireOrpheusTod

#19

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.

Source: 5 years as a chef in Italian cuisine head chef, 8 years in an Italian kitchen

Image credits: BackslashR

#20

I'm an attorney. The secret is shut the hell up.

Image credits: --IIII--------IIII--

#21

Human Resources: we exist to protect the agency from the employees, not the other way around

Image credits: TrustworthyEnough

#22

Teacher: The parents are more of a hassle than the students.

I doubt that is a secret, but there it is...

Image credits: Mahaloth

#23

A huge portion of online reviews, ratings, social media presence, etc that you see for any given company are fake, paid for, or done by multiple accounts controlled by us. This includes a company’s Glassdoor page (fake reviews about how great it is to work there so that the million negative reviews don’t crush their page).

I’m not saying it’s every company out there, but it’s been a lot of the ones I’ve worked for.

Source: am copywriter. What are ethics? I surely don’t know anymore.

Image credits: PauseAndReflect

#24

Dress codes and other rules bouncers tell you at the door are usually made up on the fly

Image credits: CloudyNeighborhood

#25

The ice cream machine isn’t broken, the f'*ckers were just too lazy to clean it, or more likely, none of the people working that day know how. It’s a b*tch and takes like 4 hours. It shuts off and makes you clean it, so rest assured it’s gonna be clean. Just not when you need it.

Image credits: Dewy_Wanna_Go_There

#26

At goodwill 50% of what you donate ends up in the trash bc we don’t have the space for it or we just deem it too ugly

Image credits: 89Oldsmobile

#27

I'm not training your dog, I'm training you.

Image credits: JayPistola

#28

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.

Image credits: FriktionalTales

#29

I design slot machines for casinos... don’t play slots.

Image credits: psychfan5

#30

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!

Image credits: picklemetimberzz

#31

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.

#32

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.

#33

Plumber here. Theirs no such thing as a flushable wipe. The package lies. You drains WILL clog, and fast; your landlord will charge you; it’s going to suck. Throw wipes in the trash if you use them; toilets paper is the only acceptable wipe.

Not a secret at all, just not common knowledge somehow.

#34

Pilots f**k up all the time. You only notice though if you know what to look for.

#35

The off brand products are created in the same factories as the name brand products a surprising amount of the time. The product itself is the same with different packaging and a lower retail price.

#36

In Microsoft office, word specifically, you can upload recorded interviews and it will transcribe it and ever have speaker one and speaker two, three and four! Basically, eliminating a huge annoying part of the job.

#37

I’m a teacher. If you as a parent will read with your child often and early, your child will thrive in school. I’m talking daily books read together from newborn to about third grade. Every single day. No teacher can replace that.

#38

Vodka is really, really, really cheap to make: the glass bottle costs more than the juice

#39

Library Worker here: the majority of donations we recieve do not end up in circulation (on our shelves) no matter how much you demand we put them there once they're donated. The reason why this is, is because we only add items to the collection that we think will circulate (be checked out). Most libraries get funding based off of statistics. We don't want to waste shelf-space on items that people aren't checking out, as it won't improve our stats. So, unless the donated items are brand new, or by popular authors we will not add them to the collection. We will also weed unpopular items from our collection with extreme prejudice for this reason, much to our patron's horror. These books usually end up being sold at book sales to help generate funding for other library programs.

#40

A lot of successful artists at a certain level of success do nothing more than create a concept and employ several assistants, who are either current or graduating art students, who actually make the art itself, its reproductions or both.

#41

If you order a pizza but like to choose your own toppings, it’s often cheaper to choose an existing pizza like a Meat Supreme or something with loads of toppings, then swap out all the toppings for ones you want, than to go for the Create Your Own option in the menu.

Note, this is much less awkward if you order online than on the phone.

#42

Firefighters are trained on several areas and can specialize deeper into certain disciplines. Most of the emergencies we get called to are situations we have never been trained on, but with 4 of us on a firetruck we can normally figure out a solution.

#43

If in doubt, lubricate....I'm a machinist.

#44

Federal HR here, if you put the words from the vacancy announcement about what you need to qualify in your resume you’ll almost always be qualified, we search for those words instead of reading an entire resume.

#45

I work in logistics for a massive manufacturing company, money's not [freakin'] real. $1000 for 8 lightbulbs.

#46

Scientists: We disagree with one another a lot more often than the media would often lead you to believe.

The reason we're good at our jobs though is that (ideally) we like disagreeing with each other and we are able to move on when proven wrong. It's a part of the job.

#47

I know a lot of people get annoyed when a store employee pushes the credit card, but at the kids clothing store I worked at, if you didn’t get at least x amount per day they cut our hours. I wasn’t pushing you a sh**ty credit card to be an as**ole, I was scared to lose my hours.

#48

If you're someone who purchases bulk nuts, grains, etc. Just know that those bins are probably rarely cleaned, and even when they are "cleaned", odds are they were just rinsed out/wiped down to look clean.

I used to be a bulk buyer at Whole Foods Market and when I took over our bulk department had no cleaning logs or sanitizing procedure. The bins had moths/insect colonies and mold in them. Our store was opened nearly 5 years prior.

#49

The cheapest bottle of wine in the restaurant has the biggest markup.

#50

[California] Cannabis concentrates: don't trust that the test results are accurate at all. We were demanded (by the business owner) to use some dirty methods to cheat on potency testing and pesticide testing. Turns out, those tests can be pretty easy to trick if you know what you're doing.

This is ultimately what led to me leaving the industry. Eventually, all of our chemists stopped smoking concentrates altogether for these reasons.

#51

The kind donations people give hoping they go directly to the clients in shelters actually end up at the Salvation Army or Goodwill to be resold (even though we’re instructed to tell them that won’t be the case) and this is done before the clients are even given the chance to decide if they want some of the donated stuff.

#52

Healthcare. Homemaker.

If your grandparent or parent gets in-home care, please know that your family member could live in a cockroach infested house and not have to move if they didn't want to. It's not up to the company to give your loved ones environmentally safe places to live, it's up to the family. They can certainly try to persuade, but they can't force.

Why do I know this? Because I've been to the cockroach infested house where an 80 year old woman lives. I have a mentally ill client that put bleach in his dog's water to help with it's breath. I have a client who never cleans his cat box. I have a client who has a caved in ceiling. I've called it in, but there is no help from the company. All they say is, "There's nothing we can do. It's up to the family members."

It's a sad sad thing because there are sooooo many family members and friends who really don't give a [damn] how some people are living. Sure, they'll visit. But do they clean the litter box? Do they make sure there are no cockroaches, do they make sure the house is stable and not falling apart? Nope. They say they care and that they love the person, but they don't care enough to make sure they live in a healthy environment.

It really worries me, because if I imagine my own mother having such a deteriorated mind and there were no other family members to help her, she could live in a run down, cockroach infested house if she was stubborn enough. It frustrates me, because whereas the client does have rights, should they really have the right to live somewhere where their health could be at risk? Where their caregivers could be at risk as well?

#53

Everything at the Container Store exists and is cheaper at Lowe’s.

#54

This seems to be a secret to many customers; it actually pays off to be patient and polite if you need the staff at a store to resolve an issue or help you with something.

#55

Amusement park ride operator here. If your kid is crying and you want us to stop the ride, even if we want to it’s not gonna stop immediately. The carousel will spin a few more circles or the ship will swing a few more times before stopping. The only exceptions is the emergency stop which will absolutely f**k up the ride for a while if we press it. Hence we only use it in actual life threatening situations. The best thing you can do is try to get your kid to calm down as the ride comes to a stop and no, yelling “Stop the ride” at us does not make it stop any faster.

#56

The guy who shows up at your house to make repairs is usually the guy who decides how much to charge you. Standing behind him while he works cost extra. Treating him like [stuff] cost extra. Being nice to him can save you a lot of money

#57

Banks don’t have millions of dollars in cash in them. Their insurances rates would be way too expensive. They keep enough on hand to do weekly traffic plus some extra.

#58

Whenever you tell someone to check in the back of a grocery store they go back there and stand for a few moments and come back out... 99% of the time of its not on the shelf we are out but we know you won't believe us so we go "look" for it so you feel a bit better even though we already knew there was none back there.

#59

We don't actually enjoy carrying people down 11 flights of way to narrow stairs because they have a stubbed toe.

#60

Every client thinks architects are unnecessary and they can draw the plans themselves but they are just too busy.

#61

Piss off one nurse; you piss off ALL the nurses.

#62

I'm in Cybersecurity and deal mostly with the largest companies and government's in the world. Every one of them has been breached, to carrying degrees, by the Russians and Chinese. Almost daily. It's not a matter of if they'll get in It's a matter of how long they'll be there, and how much damage they'll do, before you find them.

#63

They lie to their customers about saving their credit card information because we arent supposed to. We also save their social, addresses, and 5 of their most recent phone numbers and bank account numbers.

The life of a student loan servicer

#64

RV technician here. It is designed to start breaking after around 44 uses. Most RV owners use their trailers on weekends. But not every weekend. So that 44 uses on average stretches between two and three years.

#65

I'm a massage therapist and the biggest secret is stretching if you stretch properly you will get rid of effectively 90% of the problems but no one is taught how to stretch properly The best stretches are actually the stretches you learn in middle school hold still count to 10 take deep deep breaths move on.

I'm not going to lie this post has blow up a lot more than I expected and I'm just going to give a guess a little more information. The whole point of stretching is to do the opposite motion of what the muscle does whenever it's in use and the whole point of stretching is also to alleviate pain and bring circulation to the area and regulate the muscles basic systems. So here's the basic rule if you hurt somewhere do not stretch that place find the opposite muscle in the opposite movement and stretch THAT ONE. The way the body works is kind of like a giant game of tug-of-war muscle actually controls the movement of bone and helps with your posture , no one has perfect posture though. so stretching make sure that nobody wins the tug of war and that your bones remain in place is close to perfect posture as possible, which means that your bones and ligaments don't take any damage from gravity or any other force that affects your body during your daily life. I will not lie however if you do have injuries like if you broken or torn or dislocated or separated something that pain will never go away it will dissipate and it will get to a lower level in which your body will be able to tolerate on a daily basis but it will never go away The body can never correct something that's been broken. this should help you be able to search your own stretches online but apparently I need to make a YouTube channel. just thinking opposites if you're back hurts look for stretches for your front like in your chest in your core if the front of your legs hurts you need to stretch the back of your legs if the front of your arms hurt stretch the back of your arms just do the complete opposite of wherever you hurt and start stretching that area and you should notice pretty quickly that it's tighter when you stretch the side that does not hurt then versus when you stretch the side that does.. if I make a YouTube channel I'll make the post here somewhere in the comments so people can find it good luck!

#66

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.

#67

I work in the blood industry (for medical/research/manufacture use.) When you donate, your Red Blood Cells and most Platelets will actually be used for medical purposes, but about 85% of the Plasma donated will be sold to makeup companies and other manufacturers. Roughly 20% of Platelets will also be sold to manufacturers. Your White Blood Cells will either be sold for research or discarded, since they're basically useless for medical or manufacture purposes. Overall, about 50% of your blood will be used for treatments, and the rest will go to makeup/manufacturing and research companies. I'm not saying don't donate, it still helps people, but it's just something nobody really thinks about when you have that needle in your arm.

#68

Structural engineer here. Everything has a chance of failure. It's too expensive to build everything to be 100% safe

#69

Used to work in menswear and I got one that’s pretty morbid. Most of our tailor shops are filled with suits that were made years and years ago. This is because most of them were made for people who died before they could be picked up. The others are often for weddings that got canceled after the suit was made.

#70

Musical theatre: The set looks gorgeous only from the angles and distances the audience can see it. Up close and/or to the side AT ALL and it looks like a toddler built it.

Also, unless it's Broadway, there's a pretty good chance that there's at least one musician in the pit who is sight reading the music at any given performance.

#71

Ugh I hate to say this.

Hospitals aren’t as clean as I personally want them to be. A lot of my ex coworkers would clean “high-touch” areas (doorknobs, lightswitches, the stripped bed) but don’t you dare look under the mattress or the corners of the floors or under that easily rolled out couch or on the sides of toilets, dust on light fixtures, etc...

#72

New construction.

That $3k/$4k "luxury apartment" you're renting is slapped together in a rush just like everything else is.

Also, if you're on the 3rd floor or above, you have water bottles filled with urine stuffed inside your walls because the elevators are typically finished last.

#73

Not really a secret but some wholesale nurseries will sell plants for a fraction less then public nurseries and big box retailers. Like 1 gallon of a shrub will sell for $16 at home depot, but at a wholesale nursery that same plant will cost like $2-6. Edit: some wholesale nurseries are open to the public

#74

When it comes to retail:

If you're night crew, day crew just dicks around all day, and doesn't get anything done, leaving all of the work for you.

If you're day crew, night crew just dicks around all night, and doesn't get anything done, leaving all of the work for you.

#75

Nobody uses bots to inflate metrics more than the most major players in the entertainment industry. All the numbers are fake, including sales.