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What is a dirty little secret about an industry that you have worked in, that people really ought to know?

Redcupcoffee 7 Mar 23
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37 comments

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26

Archaeologists, believe it or not, do not (usually) have bullwhips nor run around fighting Nazis, not discover vast hordes of gold.

Jnei Level 8 Mar 23, 2018

We just wish they did! =] Paleontologists don't get to go to live dinosaur parks either.

Are you sure?

[whatculture.com]

Darn! My dreams are crushed! Lol! 🙂

Tell me, do you at least wear the hat? C'mon I need something.

Are they afraid of snakes though?

12

I worked in the auto repair field for several years.

While many of you are aware, there are some dishonest shops out there who prey on the general public's lack of automotive knowledge.
Most places aren't like that. Here is what many don't know. Nearly every shop does free estimates and you can get as many opinions as you want.

When you get matching diagnoses you can then decide by comparing prices, convenience, how long it will take, etc.
Once you find a place that can fulfill those to your satisfaction, keep them!
They are your car's doctor. 😉

we take our funeral home vehicles to a great place, we trust them 100%, we bring them donuts and coffee for the crew on a regular basis to show how much we appreciate them!

@Funeralgirl I bet they love you! Horton's?

12

When you buy new clothing, launder them before you wear them. Every time.
Every piece of clothing that arrives in stores from overseas, which is just about all
clothing manufactured, is treated with all sorts of pesticides before it's shipped.
Not to mention, rodents are common on transport ships. They can, and often do, get
inside shipping containers.
You really do not want to wear anything before you wash it.
As far as domestically manufactured clothing goes, rodents are also an issue.
Further, shopping in malls is a monumental waste of your money. It costs very
little to manufacture clothing, especially overseas. The markup is astronomical.
Genreally, most articles of clothing cost less than $5-8 to make, per piece.
In the case of smaller items like underwear, tanks and t-shirts, you're looking at less than $1. The markup on women's clothing is generally two to three times greater than that
of men's clothing. Even for similar items.
Stores located in malls charge more because they increase the markup to help cover
overhead, and mall rents are insane. That also applies to other merchandise, like furniture.

I got some new shirts the other day. The cotton ones, I immediately put in the laundry basket. The knit ones I put on hangers.

Then there was a little KK voice tapping me on the shoulder saying "Wash ALL of them..."

Back to the closet, off the hangers, and into the laundry basket.

@BlueWave Attagirl. Although, it's a little disconcerting that I'm a little voice in your head. LOL

@KKGator LOL!!!!

12

In a bacon factory it is common practic to walk over the bacon slabs in your work boots. Discovering that put me off eating bacon. For about a week. Hummm....bacon 🙂

Nomad Level 6 Mar 23, 2018

Why?

What? What company was that?
Coincidentally I spent a summer working in a bacon factory in college. LOL
Never saw that happen! Now I did see a bunch of elderly women catch the weiners come flying out of the machine and drying them off with paper towels. LOL

@sassygirl3869 Why did they tread on them you mean? The slabs were on the floor and in the way, and the people who worked there were too lazy to pick them up, move them or go around them. Thankfully I only had to do it for a few weeks as a temp when i was a teenager. 2nd worst job ever ?

@Qualia Can't remember tbh, it was so long ago, and I was only there two weeks (which was more than enough). I think it was somewhere outside London. We got minibused in at around 05:00 so I couldn't see much.

@Nomad I used to know a guy who worked in a sausage factory for a while, and he said the same: every evening they hauled frozen meat out of the freezers and left it on the factory floor to thaw overnight ready to go into the mincing machines the next day. As the slabs of meat were very large, heavy and frozen solid, they simply stepped on them.

And people wonder why I don't eat meat!

12

The Catholic clergy have a thing for little boys!

Oh wait...

10

In big box retail, rewarding good employees with consistent scheduling is discouraged. In one training class, we were even told to never worry about the "actively engaged" employees, because they would do good work no matter what. I strongly disagree with that sentiment and the practice of inconsistent scheduling about 2 weeks in advance (that could change at the last minute, anyway).
I don't plan on being back in that industry ever again.

Not to mention the mandatory anti-union propaganda presentations.

10

That in restaurants, nobody uses tongs to get lemon wedges for drinks.

9

As a result of the decades long campaign of HSUS/PETA "adopt don't shop" propaganda, there has sprung the yet "little"(huge) known industry that is "retail rescue"; importing dogs from other countries for profit and lax vaccination adherence and "rescue flippers". The former resulting in Asian meat dog flu and rabid animals being imported into the US.

Rescue flippers being the most vile in that people have been separated from their beloved pets and due diligence/protocol(actually there are no laws on that in many states) not followed to find the rightful owners. See, the case of Piper the champion show sheltie that resulted in a legal battle of epic proportions in Ohio, and that is only the most famous case.

I would HATE for my dog to get lost somewhere in Ohio.

@Donotbelieve Before getting into dog world proper I used to wonder why those organizations didn't do more in their ads to enlighten people where to get a pet, IF you(globa) should have one.(no screening on homes results in animals being dumped) E.g. don't buy from pet shops, you're not rescuing out of a parking lot etc but it's because that would cut into their bottom line. Pulling on heart strings is big business.

9

Hershey Chocolate has changed their formula-use more air in their product-softer, less chocolate consistency. Used to be more solid and price points have remained the same but the size is less than 50% original sizes - why you need to buy more Reeses peanut butter cups for Halloween snack size. at same price.

Worked for Hersheys,and MM Mars-they both kept price points but Mars products haven't changed formula because no solid chocolate except Dove bars.

Think that's happened with pretty much every food product that's been around for a while

doesn't taste as good as original formula.

Old Hershey miniatures new snack size

This must be so the cockroach legs mix in better.

8

In most fast-food restaurants, you have to get a doctor's note to call in sick or get a write-up, if not fired. The pay is bad enough that they can't loose the hours, much less afford a doctor's appointment for a simple flu. I've seen crew run to the back to throw up so managers don't see and send them home. Also, fast food isn't just for high school kids earning pocket money. Who made that burger you ate for lunch during the school day when you forgot to pack one? Or that time you caught that midnight showing and didn't feel like cooking at 2 am, after most child labor laws prohibit high school students from working?

Ain't the U.S. just great?

8

Many Honeywell/Ademco Lynx alarm panels (self contained) can be disabled simply by popping off the front from the wall mounted back. The early versions are incredibly simple and fast, later ones are a bit more difficult, but with some brute strength, still too easy.

MikaB Level 5 Mar 23, 2018
8

I currently work in the community sector, we recycle used good and materials, sadly and through noones fault, 85% still ends up in landfill.
I am a wildlife carer, far more animals are euthanised than saved, sad and distressing.

The big one, I worked in international banking and finance for many years, people always base the value of things in currency, bad move, it is not at all real. What happens when currencies go up and down? When shares collapse? Who loses? Who buys both currencies and stock when they are their lowest.
Put it another way, imagine you could manipulate these markets, if you bought low and rising stock, sell them before the peak, then buy them again after. Would you? Think about all the people who have been charged with insider trading. They were just plebs who got to know about things and tried to get iin on the action, they were not the ones behind them who make the decisions.
Our society is like an ant colony, all the worker ans go out and produce, collect and store but hey don't get to keep it. In our case, taxes, changes in government policy, currency and stock fluctuations all funnel the resources up the line, hence the mega rich get richer.
I stopped playing the game when I realised I was just a pawn. I invented my own game with my rules.

@Beach_slim Oh no, I just did a reply to this and it is gone, I will wait and see if it turns up, if not will repost.Also, I made a typo, it was international banking. sorry.

8

I used to rear or help rear broiler chickens for the table. they take approx 7 weeks from day old to be big enough to eat. there are 30,000 to a shed and there supposed to be drug-free for ten days before slaughter. the thing is there at there most crowded and vulnerable in the last 10 days and its the worst time economically to have them die. they always got me to put antibiotics in their water mainly in the last week or so. one other thing even there feathers are fed back to them in powdered form in there food.

One of the reasons I eat less meat.

most food is factory farmed and modified or taken out of the wild. humans are a virus

I agree with you @atheist we are too far in but nature is going to stop us and sooner rather than later. we've taken being territorial to a whole new level because of our big brains which are also our Achilles heel.

so what? what? what?

7

RESTAURANTS: you are better off having microwave dinners

6

Well.. I used to down stack pallets of groceries to bring to the stockpersons. I would sample the products.

5

Keebler cookies are NOT made by elves. Very disappointing. I hope you take this better than I did.

5

In the Heating and Air Conditioning repair business, the annual system "tune-up" is nothing more than hosing off the outside A/C coils, maybe check the refrigerant charge. The main reason they are there are to sell you crap you don't need, parts or filter systems , even new equipment. The A/C tech gets paid a flat fee to go a house to "tune-up" the A/C, usually about $12. Considering that travel time to a house and time spent at the at least 45 mins, he's not making much. So in order to make a good wage he will tell you need to replace a part. He gets like 20 to 25% of the charge on commission, the company gets the rest. Most common parts sold to you are; capacitors $10 their cost you are charged $215, contactors $11 to you $250, fan motors $45 you pay $500+, but labor is included with price. Oh by the way there is nothing wrong with the old part. Whoopie!
So for the hour he spent at a house he gets $12 to show up, $54 commision on a capacitor for a total of $66 for 1 1/2 hrs. work. So he has to sell you something to earn decent money. It's not the tech's fault this is how these residential companies work. I worked 35 years at repair work and it sickens me to see people getting ripped off, when I started out it was basiclly hourly work.

5

I could tell ya, but then I'd have ta kill ya! Nah, I got nuthin. Never worked in food service (where I'm sure there are a million issues) or health care, or the IRS.

4

Public schools are really child warehouses, keeping all the kids dumbed down to make obedient factory workers. Studies show that if one allows self-directed learning, where children can move at their own pace, students fly past the grade levels with ease, even doing college courses when very young. All this holding kids back to the same level and speed is ridiculous, and only to fill the coffers of the educational system.

3

When your doctor orders labs or an MRI or something like that, ask if you can choose the provider. Sometimes, they'll have a relationship with the place, but that doesn't mean it's the most cost effective place for you. Shop around. You can save a lot of money, especially prescriptions. Some insurance carriers may help you in your search.

3

Engineers are really super cool.

LOL

3

I used to process the predatory mortgage loans that crashed the economy in 2008. Saw thousands of loan documents first-hand.

3

I worked for the court system in NC for several years. People freaked out when they got a jury summons and gave every excuse for a dismissal. Truth is, if they just plain failed to show, no action was ever taken. Ever.

3

Just when I was going to tell... My sister showed up... She is NSA. Sorry.

Tease! D:<

Oh the stories she can tell.

@Darthpug she won't tell.

2

I sold chemicals to industry including food, use to relabel animal fat products and doctor up kosher and halal certifications.
I've worked in group homes for challenging behaviors, reported abuse (under mandatory reporting legislation) only to sacked. 🙂

wow.

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