"I used to work for a frozen foods company that processed and packaged frozen vegetables. The same exact veggies, from the same exact truck, from the same exact farm, were used for multiple different brands of frozen vegetables. They’re all the same. Do yourselves a favor and save a couple of bucks by buying the ‘store brand’ over the name brand. The only time it’s a different product is if you buy organic."
"I work at a trampoline/adventure park. We don’t clean the ballpit, like, ever. Some kid peed in there once, and they just told an employee to stick a mop in there. When we do clean it (like once a year), the number of phones, vapes, socks, etc, is actually disturbing. We’re supposed to clean it like 2-4 times a year. Also, we never clean the baby changing stations. It didn’t click to me to maybe wipe it down. If I’m on the bathrooms, it’s now added to my to-do list."
"A company I used to work for did live chat support. Unbeknownst to customers, the support engineers could read what customers were typing before they hit send. Be careful what you say to tech support is all I can say!"
"I worked as a front desk hotel clerk for several years in my twenties. One of the most valuable things I learned was that when you find a good deal with a third party online (like Hotwire or something), it’s better for both you and the hotel if you then call the hotel and ask to speak to the front desk manager, then ask them to match the price you found online. Usually (especially if they have any good sense), they’ll do it.
“Plus, if there is a mess up when you book through a third party, there’s often absolutely nothing the hotel can do about it, as you’d have to go through the booking agency to fix it. But if there’s a mess up and you booked through the hotel directly, we can fix it for you. Another benefit is that booking directly brings the hotel more money because they have to pay the third party when you use them, so they’re more likely to get you a deal if you work with them. My husband and I did this to make our reservation for a hotel in Orlando near Disney, and they not only matched the price but even went down a little lower for us. Not everyone will do it, but it’s worth a shot.”"
"I worked as Manager of the Housekeeping Department of a major Florida resort. Handling ‘lost and found’ was one of my responsibilities. We were told NOT to call previous guests who left valuable items because to do so just might result in an unsuspecting spouse finding out that their partner was there cheating on them."
"Most big-box grocery store cakes are not baked on-site. They are shipped to the stores frozen and decorated to order. This is why you can quickly get a low-priced sheet cake from a big-box grocery store but might pay a lot more and wait longer for a smaller bakery to produce a similar result."
"Many, many moons ago, I worked at the dry cleaners as a teen. The majority of clothing that is labeled ‘dry clean only’ is thrown into a regular washer on a cold delicate cycle. It’s the steaming of the clothes that makes you think they’ve been dry-cleaned. 99% of the things they do with your clothes at the dry cleaners, you can do yourself at home."
"Every call center I’ve worked at (over a 20-year span) strongly discouraged representatives from offering to connect callers to a supervisor, even when we knew that the caller’s situation could not be resolved by an ordinary representative (because it required some kind of special access or override). Some call centers would be so strict about it that you would be penalized even just for hinting broadly that the caller needed to ask for a supervisor. So be aware: as a caller with a problem or complaint that the representative does not seem willing (or able!) to explain or fix, often you have to politely but DIRECTLY ask to speak to a supervisor."
"I’m a rideshare driver on the weekends. The price you are charged is not even close to the amount the drivers are paid per ride. In my experience, rideshare companies, on average, keep 55% of the fare. If the app tells you there are 10 drivers nearby, but no one accepts your ride request, it’s because the pay quoted is too low and no one wants it. Sometimes as a result, the area will suddenly develop a massive surge so that riders get overcharged and drivers get paid what the ride should have paid to begin with."
"When you see marinated chicken, beef, fish, pork, or poultry products at the market sold by the pound, chances are the cut is past its prime, and they are just trying to sell an old cut. Buy it fresh and marinate it yourself if you can."
"I worked at a restaurant. Service can depend on which manager or lead is working that day. I can’t say this to customers, but if I could, most explanations would go like this: ‘The reason I’m giving you smaller portions is because the manager says so. Yes, you had bigger portions another day because a different kitchen lead was in the back monitoring, and they didn’t care. Sorry, we are out of that item; it’ll be 10 minutes. No, I can’t grab it from the other line. Yes, I know the other day we grabbed some for you, but the other manager allowed it, and this one doesn’t."
"I work in pest control. Termites are a seasonal nuisance; they swarm in late March to April. They usually fly to the windows but could be all over the inside of houses too, causing panic-related phone calls to us for service. What we can never tell people is that you can kill them with a spritzer of soapy water, hairspray, Lysol spray, or almost any aerosol. Instead, we say you need our specially formulated chemicals and to sign this contract! Job security."
"I worked at a bar. Often, patrons would buy the bar ladies a round of drinks. We would all pick the same drink — which was clear — and take shots of it. What our patrons didn’t know was that there were two beverages in the same kind of bottle, and both were clear. While they thought they were buying us alcohol, they were actually buying us shots of water and paying the same price."
"I work for one of the biggest auto parts companies in America. We charge a ridiculous amount for batteries and never put them on sale. The company knows that when people are desperate, they’ll pay whatever they have to. Most people don’t know that we price match with our competitors; all they have to do is ask. We’re not allowed to say anything if they don’t ask, though. Plus, we can get fired for telling people they can get cheaper batteries elsewhere, like at a hardware store or big box location. We also have to offer the most expensive battery first, trying not to let them know there is a cheaper option."
"As a nurse, we are not allowed to tell a patient if their doctor is terrible. We can’t even recommend getting a second opinion. Working in a particular ICU, we nurses used to refer to one surgeon as ‘The Butcher.’ His botched surgeries were pretty awful. Some of us even complained about it to the higher-ups but were told that he brings money to the hospital, so just keep quiet.
Pay attention if a nurse is trying to be tactful about a doctor (my go-to when asked about that surgeon was saying he was a hard worker). There are surgeons that are amazing and others who I wouldn’t allow to do surgery on a dead cockroach if I had any authority."
"I worked in a creamery making butter for eight years. A popular imported brand of butter would come in from overseas and be already two years old. We’d convert it into sticks, and it would be magically good for another year. Expiration dates mean nothing."
"I was a hairstylist. At my salon, they wouldn’t give you a raise unless you sold a certain amount of their hair products. Being booked all the time, extremely talented, and bringing in new clients didn’t matter — it was all about how much product we could sell."
"I worked in radio for 20 years. Those ‘Second Date Update’ or ‘War of The Roses’ kind of bits you hear on morning radio shows are all staged. They’re actors. Think about it — who actually answers unknown numbers these days?! They’re still entertaining, though!"
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