Every year, thousands and millions of people submit their resumes, pass (or fail) interviews, and get new jobs. Their success largely depends on how the new work team will turn out, how entitled or not the boss will be and, of course, on the level of wages. But sometimes these aren’t the main success factors.
There are various professional secrets at almost every job, and knowing them in advance greatly facilitates your workflow. So we do think that this compilation of random professional behind-the-scenes secrets may very well be incredibly useful for you.
#1
I’m a nanny. And no, your child will never say their first word in front of me without you around. Your child will never take their first step without you around. Your child will never hold their bottle by themselves for the first time, crawl, pull themselves up, or achieve any other milestone for their first time when you’re not around. I will only ever say “You should keep an eye out, I think they’re going to …. for the first time soon!” I always do my best to allow parents to experience that First Time on their time (even if it wasn’t actually the first time).
Image source: BayYawnSay, Viyan Manz
#2
If your hotel charges a cancellation fee within X days, Don’t call and cancel within X days. Call and change the date to something distant and then cancel shortly after. It’s obviously gaming the policy, but it’s an obviously game-able policy.
Image source: Amenra7, Josh Sorenson
#3
Everyone who did night shift at the lab I worked in slept for the majority of the shift. We were there at night in case any samples turned up, which was usually twice in a 12 hour shift from 6pm to 6am. There was an old unused office with a mattress under the desk, you’d bring your own sleeping bag, we all kept it secret because who the f**k doesn’t want to make 120k a year while sleeping…
Image source: AngelicWooGirl, JesseLeeRoper
#4
Entry Mercedes vehicles such as the GLB have a Nissan engine.
Edit: I’m referring to the A220, GLA, and GLB.
The downvotes make me think Mercedes owners are hella mad lol. I sold them for many years. I changed industry for a reason.
Image source: Mooziechan, Valentin Angel Fernandez
#5
Absolutely no one, and especially nothing cares about your package when you ship it. Fragile? Hah! Orientation arrows? Pffffft. Even if you managed to somehow get the dozens of human hands that touch you package to care; the conveyor belts don’t give a fuuuuuuuuuck.
The safety of your package is entirely up to how well it’s packaged.
Image source: Jayce86, Mister Mister
#6
The dirt underneath the concrete or asphalt is usually more important than the thickness of the structure topping it, well-prepped subgrade is king if you want to minimize concrete cracking, asphalt flex, and structural movement.
It’s a secret because nobody gives a damn about dirt and no matter how often I explain how our subgrade in an area is f****d I always hear “what if we make the concrete thicker?”.
Image source: throwawaytrumper, Markus Spiske
#7
As a social worker, there will NEVER be a time when you “finish” all your work, because the field just doesn’t work like that. So clock out when you go home – don’t do any work. You’ll survive a lot longer in this field and be able to help a lot more people if you, yourself, are taken care of.
Image source: MAFIAxMaverick, Anna Shvets
#8
The Catholic Church is running out of priests in the US and has to import their priests from abroad, not many want to enter priesthood these days. The Catholic churches pedophile problem is/was much worse then you probably thought.
Image source: 2009MitsubishiLancer
#9
If Im out of a beer/wine/grocery item, Im out; I know this for a fact. I just go “look in the back” to shut you up.
Image source: Suspicious-Squash237, Rene Asmussen
#10
We decide what influencers say and most of it is exaggeration or lies. You cant trust a single sponsored post by 99% of influencers
Image source: panicpixiememegirl, kardashians
#11
Nanny here. you have no secrets. Your child tells me everything you do.
If mommy and daddy fought over daddy’s friend, we know.
If daddy sleeps on the couch, we know.
If you have something negative to say about us and you say it in front of your kids, besides being a d**k move on your part, your kid will tell us.
If you’re pregnant and want to wait till youre further along don’t leave c**p out on the counters or tell your kids because, you guessed it, we know.
Image source: LivingTheBoringLife, Victoria Rain
#12
Most oncologists with terminal cancer will forego palliative chemotherapy.
Image source: feetofire, Presidencia de la República Mexicana
#13
Take a *deeeep* breath before opening the cathouse door, shovel two shovelfuls of lion dung and catpiss-soaked bedding into the wheelbarrow, sprint out the door before you run out of breath, make sure you’re 10 feet away from the door, inhale again, run back in, repeat.
You puke **instantly** if you inhale in there…
source: New zoo intern 🤮🤮
Image source: pocrik9, Pixabay
#14
Some actors really deserve the roles they get. Some really, really don’t. What’s most disappointing is watching auditions knowing they’re giving the best performance you’ve watched so far but knowing they’re not famous enough to get the role.
Image source: OldBowerstone, Pixabay
#15
you can go to home depot, walk into the break room, grab a spare apron, write your name on it, and walk out with anything you want. staff isn’t notified of new hires. just say you’re taking s**t for curbside pickup. You can probably only do it once per location, but go nuts. also, staff is specifically instructed not to stop shoplifters.
home depot is anti-union and a s****y place to work, so f**k them.
Image source: thewitchmaker, Mike Mozart
#16
If you ask a Barkeeper to make you a strong drink they’ll say „sure thing“ – and make you a standard one.
Unless you’re a well tipping regular.
Image source: NiceWriting, Rachel Claire
#17
In animated shows in the US, even ones for adults, people riding bikes must always have helmets and people in cars must have seatbelts on if the car is moving. There’s a department called Standards and Practices whose whole job is to prevent “imitatable violence” or other acts that children could imitate and be hurt from. This includes removing things like climbing into a washing machine (Lilo and Stitch on Disney+) or leaving the park with a stranger (early Sesame Street episodes.) Blood is a huge one, as are most body fluids – dogs can pee, but you can’t show urine, and puke has to be a certain color or it won’t pass. Fire is also one for preschool shows, apparently.
Image source: cinemachick, Gavin Anderson
#18
Almost no plastic actually gets recycled. It ends up in landfills after sitting on barges because the market value is s**t.
Image source: insofarincogneato, Krizjohn Rosales
#19
Politics is a lot less mean on the inside. I’m friends with many other staffers from the other party and most members get along/work together way more than the media wants you to think.
Oh, and if you think offices don’t talk to each other, they do.
Image source: smallz86, cottonbro studio
#20
When a guest is told their room that they booked has had to be taken offline due to a maintenance issue and they have been found a room in another hotel close by means the hotel f****d up and overbooked the hotel or the room has bed bugs.
Image source: jlelvidge, SheenV
#21
Sometimes thermostats in offices are only there to make the occupants feel good. They appear to change the temperature but on the back end of the system they are locked out or limited to 1 or 2 degrees. This placebo keeps people happy because they have some control over their environment. Other times, the unit is just broken.
Image source: SuperstitiousPigeon5, John Loo
#22
People really DO listen to the recordings of your phone calls that “may be recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.” There’s an entire industry surrounding aggregating and analyzing the data from those calls and how they went from a compliance and QC perspective.
Image source: ProsciuttoPizza
#23
That product you purchased a few months ago that’s been on backorder that you called about the other day?
Uh…it’s not still on backorder. Well, it is, but we had to reorder it because it came in the other day and no one put your name on it and it got sold. Sorry.
Image source: ServiceCall1986, Tiger Lily
#24
Hospitals are f*****g disgusting
Image source: Remarkable-Camp8577
#25
One of my funniest secrets as a teacher is using a ‘magic word’ that makes all my students immediately stop making noise and pay attention to me. That word is ‘cookies’! When I say it, everyone instantly freezes and looks at me expecting me to get a tasty snack out of my bag. Of course, I don’t always get cookies, but it helps me keep control in class and make learning more interesting and fun.
Image source: LianaTeacher, Mikhail Nilov
#26
Shutting down a nuclear plant is far easier than you think (or the movies have you believe). I know of a dozen ways I can shut down our plant — none of which require access to the control room.
My favorite one was someone closing a 3/8″ valve on the roof of a building, causing a plant trip.
The hard part is keeping a plant running! Everything is so finely balanced that it takes very little to shut it down.
Image source: mks113
#27
I no longer work there, but I try to spread this info every time, because it helps the bottom-line.
AutoZone: Return-swaps (when you return an item you previously bought, for a different item) and warranty-swaps (a warranty item is damaged and swapped out for a new one) count as sales.
AutoZone’s warranty policy covers ANY damage *taps a baseball bat against the counter* aside from general use wear and tear. *drops a hammer on the floor* Whoops, how clumsy of me.
All I’m saying is it would be a real shame if your used break pads got snapped in half, by accident. Something about Auto Zone break pads… They’re the same as the ones in every other store, and at the dealership, but they somehow keep coming back snapped in half, just before they’re worn down into the “red zone.” Oh well, gotta honor the warranty.
So would you like a warranty on those break pads, sir or ma’m?
Image source: High_Horse617, Paul Sableman
#28
When I fix your car there is no magic plunger to magically suck the dents out. I have to do lots of stuff.
Image source: Im_not_a_liar, Andrea Piacquadio
#29
Your mobile telco runs a lot of telemetry on their networks and already knows about the issue you’re experiencing. It’ll get fixed when it’s worthwhile to do so.
Running a call centre and accepting coverage or speed complaints is a PR exercise and regulatory requirement. These complaints never make their way to engineering.
Image source: per08
#30
You would probably not eat out so much if you could see what is going on behind a wall in the kitchens of most food establishments.
Image source: Uncle_Spenser, ELEVATE
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