Workers Share Their Insider Industry Secrets That Nobody Should Ever Know

Everyone knows a thing or two about “industry secrets,” whether they realize it or not. Think about the tobacco companies, for example, hiding information about the negative health consequences of cigarettes for so many years. The reality though, is that every industry has its share of secrets, and very few of them get out into the mainstream, or are reported on by the media.

From secret-handshake legal friends, to airline-pay rules that’ll have you scratching your head, every industry has some quirks that’ll be sure to surprise you. People who work in various industries have gathered to reveal some of their own industries’ biggest and least-known secrets. You’ll be more than a little surprised by some of these revelations…

Eyeglass Markups

Bet you have no idea how much your fancy new lenses actually cost, beyond the fact that you’re going to be paying upwards of $250 when you get them at your favorite provider’s shop. Well, I hate to break it to you, but they’re basically $5 or $10! It’s insane.

This high markup is the industry standard, and is how eyeglass shops stay in business, since the margins on those pretty designer frames you choose are pretty low. Still, it’s pretty shocking when you really think about it. Reddit user: Bottleup3

Friendly Lawyers

It turns out that the myth that lawyers are combative, terrible people who hate each other is just that – a myth. Most lawyers actually like each other. That’s true even of prosecutors and defense attorneys, and is definitely true for the collegial corporate lawyers in shows like Suits.

Many lawyers who find themselves on opposing sides were even friends when they were in law school together, and the others have so many professional and social connections it’s genuinely hard not to be friendly. Reddit user: skaliton

Fragile, Handle With No Care

It turns out your “fragile” packages are getting the same rough treatment as everyone else’s normal packages. I mean, it makes sense, since you’re usually not paying any more for the fancy FRAGILE sticker. Obviously you’re not getting any special treatment – there is no free lunch.

Just try to forget the fact that your fine china and cherished collectables are being thrown in a pile with other people’s clothing and mattresses. It’ll probably be fine, and if it turns out not to be, that’s what insurance is for. Right? Reddit user: Ego_Floss

Those Work Perks Are Evil

The tech companies that offer free breakfast, lunch, dinner, laundry services, car services, and gyms on their campuses? They’re not being nice to their workers, or trying to make their lives better. They’re just trying to keep them at the office as long as humanly possible.

The less time you have to spend taking care of essential tasks in your own life, the longer you can spend taking care of the company’s essential tasks, by staying at the office. And forget having a social life – that’s not important. Reddit user: lookupinthesky

Personal Trainers Don’t Follow Their Own Advice

Ever have a personal trainer try to sell you something? A supplement? Creatine? Lots and lots of protein powder? Unfortunately, and I hate to break it to you, but there’s no easy way to get what they have. Their bodies are due in some part to their genetics, and mostly thanks to how hard they work, just like everyone else’s should be.

They’re just using what they already have to convince you to give them (or someone else) a great deal of money. You’re better off just putting in the time, and getting results the old fashioned way – by actually doing the work. Reddit user: overlyattachedbf

The Theater Is Dirty

People would like to think that sexual harassment and abuse is a problem confined to particular bad apples in the theater and media industries. Unfortunately, it’s way more widespread and pervasive than that. People constantly try to sleep with people they have power over, and it’s messed up.

It’s super common for people in the entertainment world to gain a measure of success by acquiescing to sexual demands from their superiors – casting directors, producers, and the like. However, these kinds of things happen in every industry you can imagine on a regular basis. It’s pretty bad. Reddit user: keplar

Live Radio Ain’t Live

The phone-in calls that you hear on your favorite radio station? The ones you think are live? The ones that make you curse your timing when your call isn’t accepted? Well, those aren’t really live, in the literal sense of the word. They’re usually from the last commercial break.

Let’s be honest – doing things live is hard, and often leads to people messing up. That’s why most radio programs go to great lengths to fake it, and make their pre-recorded stuff sound live. It simply makes it easier for them to get it right. Reddit user: cruisefromottawa

Snake Escape!

Pet store workers aren’t exactly animal control experts, they just happen to sell animals. Most of the time, this is totally fine – pet stores have puppies, mice, frogs, and the occasional guinea pig. But, if your local pet store has snakes, I’d say the odds are there’s a snake loose in the store about 75% of the time.

Snakes are one of nature’s true escape artists, and they are quite adept at getting out of confinement. You just better hope the snakes are the harmless kind, and not the dangerous or venomous kind. That way your life won’t be in danger, you’ll just be kind of scared. Reddit user: bargainac

Cake Shops Are Fooling You

You might like to think that the guy or gal running your local neighborhood cake shop is a future contestant on the Great British Baking Show, but odds are that’s not the case. It turns out that most of the cakes you buy arrive at the shop frozen, and actually come from a central distributor.

The cake shop does the custom decorations itself – and, obviously, the best shops do the best decorating. They usually just don’t mention where the original cake came from. They rely on your assumptions to keep their reputations afloat. Reddit user: BINGPOT

Someone Is Making Fun Of Your Name

As someone who’s worked in a call center for years, I can confirm that we all think your name is weird. This isn’t the case if you have a normal, bland name like Steven or Michael of course, but if your name is even a bit unusual, someone, somewhere is laughing about it with their coworkers.

This is also true for most of the companies that have your data. Think about every account you’ve ever made with your real name – if your moniker is even a little unusual, somebody is thinking you’re hilarious! Reddit user: RhettSarlin

Teachers Aren’t That Unified, Really

Though teachers unions do present a unified face when it comes to public relations, the dirty secret is that we do, in fact, know that a number of our colleagues are doing poor work, and just aren’t good teachers. We don’t talk about it usually, because the consequences of doing so can be bad.

I just want you to know that we’re not totally oblivious to the shortcomings of some of our colleagues. Sure there are bad teachers. It’s obvious, just like there are bad people in any profession – we just don’t talk about it much. Reddit user: theofiel

Dirty Pills

As a pharmacist, I can tell you that we don’t want to waste perfectly good medicine just because you’re squeamish, and never heard of the “five second rule.” If a pill falls on the floor when we’re filling your order, we just pick it up and put it right in the bottle. Trust me, nobody will know the difference.

To be fair, we tend to keep our floors – and everything else – pretty clean; and actually, floors in general are pretty clean. You’re more likely to get sick from the pen that you used to sign for your prescriptions than you are from the pills we dropped on our floor. Reddit user: mamakf

Ambulances Are Expensive; EMTs Are Not

If you’ve ever needed an ambulance, you know that the bills you get hit with afterward can be hefty. In fact, hefty is an understatement. They’re often un-payable. The sad truth, though, is that the people working in the ambulance are still making something close to minimum wage.

They care about you, and are trying their hardest to save your life when called to an emergency situation, but they’re not paid nearly as much as the people who own the company that owns the ambulance. Alas! Reddit user: HeliosRises

Construction And Modern Slavery

I work in the construction industry in Europe, and I can tell you that we have a real problem with forced labor. Sure, it’s not slavery like existed in the 1600s, but that doesn’t make it ok. Young men are essentially imported for periods of time from Eastern Europe, and forced to work.

Their passports are taken once they arrive. They’re then told that they’re in debt to the company that brought them over, and then they’re forced to work for free until the projects are done. I’m not even certain it’s legal, but it happens. Reddit user: Hattix

Timber Industry In Hiding

People don’t like to see trees cut down, even if they do like to use paper for writing or printing, paper towels, toilet paper, and so much more. As a result, the timber industry goes to great lengths to hide their activities. When you’re driving down a tree-lined highway, it’s likely only 10 feet or so of forested area.

The rest, behind the initial row or two of trees, has probably been cut down – or is in the process of being “harvested.” The logging companies will usually leave a buffer so that people don’t realize that deforestation is happening in their own backyards. Reddit user: x31b

Live Theater To Landfill

People don’t really realize how wasteful live theater productions can be. This isn’t to say they’re more wasteful than a Jason Bourne movie, which uses tons of fake explosions and stuff. But all the foams, and wood, and props, and construction materials do end up in landfills.

I suppose it’s not as scandalous as some of the other stuff I’ve been reading about. But if you love going to the live theater, or the opera, and least know what’s going on. Your money isn’t just going to pay the actors and crew members. Reddit user: seykuel

Doctors Overcharge For Pregnancy Tests

This one is pretty straightforward and makes a lot of sense in the context of the overpriced American healthcare system. You can go to a doctor’s office and get a pregnancy test, or you can get one at the store. They have the same accuracy, but the one at the doctor costs much more.

At the office where I work, a simple urine pregnancy test costs upwards of $45 a pop, and it’s not significantly more accurate than the test kits you can get at your local pharmacy. What you’re paying for is the office’s overhead. Thank you. Reddit user: littlefishsticks

Public Pools Are Safe, But Filthy

Ever see a little kid vomit in a public pool? Ever stop to think what happens to the pool afterwards. Well, I’ll tell you. We don’t drain and replace all the water, of course. We just put massive amounts of chlorine in it to make sure that all the bacteria are dead.

The regular pool filters make the water look clean afterwards, but you should know that it’s the exact same water that the kid vomited in, which means there’s still vomit in the water. We just make certain that you don’t know it. Oh well. Reddit user: siel04

YouTube, Backstage

A lot of your favorite people to follow on YouTube are certainly talented, but they’re only a small part of the operation. There are tons of people working behind the scenes to fake the authenticity that you consume with such gusto – managers, producers, composers, videographers, and more.

Like any commercial endeavor, creating vlogs has become entwined with the money-making machinery that governs much of modern society. And, quite honestly, did you really think those production values and quality just happened? Shocking, right? Reddit user: desertravenwy

Diagnostic Tests And False Positives

Most of the time, you don’t think about the odds that you receive a false positive when you go to the lab to get tests your doctor ordered. It’s a definite possibility though, because there’s a tradeoff between reducing false positives and false negatives.

It’s not surprising for you to get false positives on occasion. Testing designs often focus on reducing false negatives, since the costs of missing a serious medical condition are far worse than the psychological discomfort of waiting through another confirmatory round of testing. Reddit user: Failed_Art

Hotel Sheets Are Reused

The people who clean your hotel room have one priority – save the hotel money however they can. They’re also not paid particularly well, and have an incentive to save themselves time and effort. If the sheets look clean and have only been slept in once or twice, they’re often just reused.

The person who cleans the room will just make sure the bed is tightly made, and covered with a comforter. In many cases, they don’t bother to actually change out the linen, and the odds are nobody will ever know the difference. Reddit user: myliltoehurts

Just Google It, Please

Before you call tech support, can you please just try to figure out the answer to your problem yourself? It’s usually always on Google. The dirty secret is that tech support workers are not magicians, and frequently don’t know anything about the specific platform they’re advising you about.

They just do exactly what you’d do most of the time, and use Google to find the answer. They’re usually quite good at walking people through complex tasks, but then again, so are many of the sites you’ll find on the internet yourself. Reddit user: Up2Eleven

Video Game Bugs

As a video game tester, I can assure you that the bug that has been causing you a massive headache for the last few days was known about before the game was shipped. It’s just often so much less costly to ship with some known bugs than to miss a release date, or delay production.

We can always fix bugs later with patches, and honestly we don’t care if our customers are annoyed for a few days. Just so long as they don’t return the game, we’re good. And the truth is, most folks don’t return the game. Reddit user: Deepfudge

Replication Crisis

This one is well known in certain circles but bears repeating as much as humanly possible. Much social science research is total bunk – it’s based on misuse of the concept of statistical significance and strategies of “p-value hacking.” Tons of it can never be reproduced later.

The wild thing is that academics continue to produce more research using the same shoddy methods and assumptions today, and the media (along with grant-giving organizations) continue to fuel this irresponsible behavior. Whatever brings in the money, I guess. Reddit user: stone2552

Bed Bugs Are Inevitable

Hotels have no idea whether or not there are bed bugs in a room until someone reports them, and at that point, it’s too late for the person who stayed in the room. Guests bring bed bugs, and the people who clean hotel rooms don’t sleep in the rooms they clean, so nobody knows.

Often, once we treat rooms, guests will just bring bugs in again (albeit to different rooms – and different guests). It’s a never ending war, and one that is impossible to win once and for all. There are more of them than there are of us. Reddit user: RoseAudine

Hospital Elevators Are Literal Death Traps

It’s a sad fact, but elevators in hospitals break down just as much as elevators elsewhere. That is to say they, don’t break down very much, but it does happen. And, unlike other locations, when an elevator breaks in a hospital, it can be a really, really big deal.

Imagine someone being transferred to the ICU and getting caught on a stretcher in an elevator – this is literally a life or death situation. We check the elevators, and get them serviced on a regular basis, but there’s only so much we can do. Reddit user: KarmaticFox

Made In The [INSERT COUNTRY]

Often we just swap out “Made in China” tags for “Made in the USA” tags (or the corresponding tags for whatever country we’re shipping our products to.) There’s little regulation, and essentially zero enforcement checking whether the tags on your products are accurate.

And, let’s be honest, are the products made in China really that much worse than the stuff made anywhere else? We see it as what we’re doing doesn’t really hurt you in the end, so no harm, no foul. You get the product you want, and if you’re happy with it … ignorance is bliss, right? Reddit user: Imakedo

Starbucks Is Sometimes Less Green Than Its Logo

I work in a Starbucks and have always been annoyed by the recycling bins we have displayed prominently in our lobbies. It helps promote us as a green company that is doing more than just fair trade coffee to save the environment. The issue is, sometimes it’s fake!

It turns out that often, the stuff in the bins doesn’t even go to the recycling facilities. They’re either not available or too expensive, so it just gets dumped in a regular old landfill, with the non-recyclables. Reddit user: princesscupcakes69

Can You Check In The Back, Please?

You know the magical backroom of stores – the one that always seems to have your size, even when it’s not out front in the display areas? Well, it’s a nightmare to navigate for employees, and we hate it when you ask us to check there. It’s usually just a pile of unorganized stuff from who knows when.

But, the upside is, it usually does have what you’re looking for, in your size and color. If anyone else has tried it on, a lazy employee probably just threw it back there at some point rather than bother to re-rack it. Reddit user: Nameless_Soldier

Improv Masters

You think that reality TV is the real deal, but it turns out that much more of scripted TV and movies than you’d think is also improvised. In fact, many of the most famous bits in comedy movies were winged by the skilled actors in the roles.

Often, things like bloopers become the real deal too. Some actors are notorious for insisting on having creative freedom, but sometimes lines or even whole scenes just kind of happen by accident. And they can be both good and bad. Reddit user: WiggleSparks

Rebates Are Evil

Businesses aren’t being nice to you by offering rebates or free returns – they’re just assuming that you won’t go to the effort to mail in a request, or package up the thing you just bought and drop it off at the store. Basically, all “added extras” are trying to trick you into thinking you’re getting a really good deal.

Face it, like most people, you’re lazy, and going to all the trouble of returning an item – or even filling out that rebate card – just doesn’t seem worth it. Also, in a lot of cases, the cost of these “freebies” is added into the price of the product.  Reddit user: RonSwansonsOldMan

Daycare Is Keeping Secrets From You

You thought that you were there for your baby’s first steps. You thought that you heard them say mommy or daddy for the first time. You might be wrong. Think about the sheer volume of time your kids spend with nannies and daycare professionals. They just don’t tell you when your kid does something big!

They know you want to be there for those special firsts, and they don’t want you to fire them so that you can spend more quality time with your little tots. It’s really a case of don’t ask, don’t tell! Reddit user: theracoonrobot

Librarians Have Seen Some Crap

I hate to tell you this, but the pages of the used or borrowed book you’ve been turning recently are probably not as clean as you think. As a librarian, I’ve seen all sorts of weird things used as bookmarks and then left in books. Some are just odd, like dollar bills, but others are much worse.

For example, I once checked in a book with used toilet paper with literal poop still on it, which had been used to mark someone’s place. No, really, I couldn’t believe it – but then the smell hit me! That was not a great day at work.  Reddit user: RelicBookends

Decline Insurance, Especially For Storage

You don’t need insurance to rent a storage locker. Repeat after me again: you don’t need it. The storage locker folks will try every trick in the book, including just straight up lying to you about legal requirements, but most of the time they’re wrong and you can just use your renter’s or homeowner’s insurance.

They just want to charge you a hefty premium, pocket the cash, and call it a day. Make sure you do your research before believing anyone about this kind of thing. People will try to get your money any way they can these days. Reddit user: LoweredBap

Subscription Inflation

Have you ever looked at your monthly credit card statements and been surprised to see that your recurring bills – things like magazine subscriptions, cable service, or streaming providers – have gone up over time? This is part of the plan – they know how annoying it is to cancel or switch, and they take advantage.

The only thing you can do is take control of your life, and dump the providers and services that you don’t want, or at least don’t want relative to their price, and look around for a better deal. Otherwise, this will keep happening forever. Reddit user: RalcolmMeynolds

I’m So Sorry For Your Loss- Pay Me

Funeral homes are businesses, just like any other. And, like other businesses, they use your emotions to get you to pay them for their services. It just so happens that in this case, the relevant emotion is grief, and the relevant cause is the fact that someone you cared about is now dead.

That doesn’t change the basic business calculation of manipulating you to extract a profit, however. The more services they can sell you, and the higher the costs for those services, the more they will make. So, even though it may make you feel queasy, be on your guard! Reddit user: [redacted]

Plagiarism Is Not Just A Student Problem

It’s very possible that your professors – the very same ones telling you how unethical it is to cheat and plagiarize material that’s not your own work – are probably less saintly than you’d think. The practice of “borrowing” from other academics’ work, or even from their own students, is quite common.

Often it doesn’t rise to the level of literal thievery or plagiarism, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ethically alright. Taking someone else’s ideas is almost always wrong, even if it might be technically legal! Reddit user: dudenamedfella

Board Quickly… Please

Did you know that pilots and flight attendants don’t get paid during the boarding process, including when passengers are getting off planes, and when there are unexpected delays. We don’t get overtime! So, when you see us angry that you’re taking forever to put your bag up, we have a reason!

We are happy to do our jobs to the best of our abilities, but don’t expect us to work for free. Get on and off the plane as quickly as you safely can, and let us get home to our lives! Reddit user: boozeandarrows

Cash Vs Insurance – Not Always An Easy Choice!

Sometimes it’s actually cheaper to not go through your health insurance company’s process, depending of course on where you are relative to your deductible, and whether you plan to have many more healthcare expenses in the future. I work in a hospital, and cash bills can vary widely, in my experience.

For some outpatient tests, just paying the cash up front can sometimes be a good decision for many people. In some cases, it can help you avoid a larger bill that you’re responsible for paying a sizable portion of. Check it out! Reddit user: [redacted]

DIY Repairmen

Don’t trust your furniture repair-person! Often, during repairs, professionals will just cover scratches with markers, even ones they make themselves. It’s truly rare that a repair-person will be able to handle a repair anywhere outside of their own shop, and if they can, it’s going to take time and money.

Unless you’re a total noob who’s unable to figure out how to access videos on YouTube, you’re better off turning furniture-repair into a weekend project, as opposed to hiring someone off of Craigslist, who’s more than likely going to render your piece worse than it is already. Reddit user: HippieJesus13