We all have various jobs and work in many different industries. So it's no wonder that there are things that baffles us. Wouldn't it be cool if we had some inside knowledge from such workplaces that would help us navigate our daily lives a little better?
Well, that's why I was thrilled when I stumbled upon a Reddit thread that asked people to share trade secrets from their jobs with the rest of us. Let's see what we can find out. Shall we?
"Vinegar is the best thing to get your cutlery shiny in a restaurant/bar."
Well, I can't say I'm all that surprised. Vinegar is pretty much the best cleaning agent there is. We use it around our house a lot.
"When you shop at Walmart, do you sometimes hear the announcement saying security cameras to zone six, or another number? They play them randomly in the hopes that someone who might be stealing will get paranoid thinking they’re being watched, and will decide not to shoplift."
Aha! That makes sense, no?
"Arcade crane games have knobs inside that let you control how strong the claw grabs. So you basically make the claw really weak strength and then there’s a setting in the motherboard to make the claw go full power after a certain amount of plays. Whatever the arcade or owner decides how often they want people to actually win."
Come on! That's not right. I knew it was rigged!
"As a freelance photographer, most magazines and newspapers don't pay you for using your photos. They offer you photo credit only. If you ask to be paid, they just get a similar photo from someone else."
Oh, man! That's too bad. I have wondered about that since I love photography.
"If you are involuntarily kicked off a flight because of over sales you can demand cash instead of a voucher."
Yes! That's right. I've heard this before, and I've been assured that it actually works. So keep that in mind the next time you don't get on that flight.
"Trade: Carpentry. Specifically low end commercially made exterior doors with wooden jambs. This is what is used on most new construction. The door itself may be fiberglass or metal, but the door jamb is made of short pieces of soft moisture-absorbing wood."
"If you own a house in a wet, humid environment and have an exterior door that is unprotected from the elements, meaning that it isn't located under a roof of some sort, or gets wet every time it rains - the lower part of the door jamb is probably in some stage of rotting away. Perhaps the aluminum threshold has already detached and now there's a huge gap under the door."
"Pay the extra cost and get an exterior door with non-rotting PVC, or composite door jamb. Do not replace it with the same piece of [expletive] door that has already rotted. Otherwise within a few years, if you're lucky, you will be in the same situation."
Duly noted!
"Things may have changed in the past few years, but generally speaking plastic is hardly ever recycled anymore. It used to be shipped to China for processing, but even they had a hard time with the amount of pollution and toxic waste produced by recycling it. Now it will get shipped to other countries in Asia, where more often than not it just gets dumped into the Pacific Ocean. A lot of municipalities just add it to a landfill."
Sadly, I wondered about that, and I'm horrified to hear that.
"You cannot copyright or patent a garment design. Only trademarks and branding are able to be protected in the fashion industry. Literally, anyone can legally copy any garment so long as they don’t use logos or another copyrighted/trademarked branding.
Edit: since a lot of people like technicalities, it is possible to patent novel non-obvious design features, but it’s niche and rare. It’s typically sports-related clothing like shoes where this is more common."
Interesting, huh?
"I doubt this will be too interesting to most but if you buy 100 tons of straight rebar, you’re actually only getting like 95 tons of steel. ASTM allows the rebar to be up to 6% lighter than the nominal weight per foot and so it saves on raw material if you aim to run 4-5% light. However, rebar is tested based on the nominal weight per foot so two pieces of rebar with the same strength will be able to hold the same amount of force even if one is 'thinner than the other."
I didn't know that.
"If you ship through FedEx express, if you're sending many packages/envelopes to a single stop, ship one priority overnight and the rest standard. They'll be delivered together with the priority package."
Oh, did you get all that? I'm a bit lost, haha.
"Too many years in an industrial bakery: If the plastic clip holding a bread bag closed is upside down compared to the others, it's been manually attached by hand and the contents may have been tampered with.
"If you unclip/open a bag of factory-produced bread while holding it hanging from your hand, and the bag spins open, the same thing as above applies (i.e someone has spun the bag before manually attaching the clip, the machines don't spin the bags)."
"If you buy sliced bread and there's a rather sudden shift in color between say the first 10 and last 20 slices, they're different loaves patched together by hand in the same bag. The same thing is true if there's a slight shift in size/diameter, slices should naturally line up perfectly with their neighboring slices if they're the same loaf."
I literally just noticed two different bread loaves in one bag the other day.
"If a medical professional ever suggests you get a second opinion, e.g. a nurse at the doctor's office. It can be code for they are concerned about the quality of the medical care you are currently receiving. And that you REALLY should get that second opinion."
Oh, I actually wondered about that too and now I know.
"On any piece of machinery, if the welds you see look like [expletive], the welds you don’t see are even worse."
I can only imagine and I don't want to find that out. It's better to be safe than sorry, folks.
"Automotive Industry. Never buy the first year of any new model car."
Okay, I'm not sure what the reason for it is but I can take a guess. Usually the last of a generation is the best in general. That's when all the facelifts and problems are worked out and the generation is matured.
"As an HVAC mechanical engineer, if you tell us you don't care about a brand it'll open up an entire industry of options. Almost all packaged equipment has the same efficiency and warranty, but some brands just cost way more than others because of whatever internal proprietary controls they have or inflated egos or whatnot. I can design you a system for 30-50% less sometimes if you give me the flexibility to do so. I can also show you a comparison to prove to you that two systems of different costs will operate equally."
Wow!
"Attorneys can really only remember the details of about 20 to 40 cases at a time, so if you call your attorney after about a month or two, depending on the firm and how busy they are, they likely completely forgot what happened to you, and are working off a set of notes to pretend they have any clue who you are. Especially if you've really only interacted with them via phone other than one time in person for an intake or whatever."
I can't say I'm surprised.
"If you call a call center of any kind, and the person you're talking to puts you on hold with no hold music, they can hear everything you're saying. I worked in an insurance call center when I was really young. I had so many people accidentally confess to insurance fraud that way."
Oh my goodness. You don't say?
"All Emergency rooms are not EQUAL emergency rooms. In my hospital, we don’t have any sort of OB, Pediatrics, or any of that. Whenever a kid comes in, or worse a baby, the nurses, and doctors are all in a panic. Not because they’re incompetent but because that’s not what our hospital does regularly. Sure we will stabilize to the best of our ability and we will immediately call the local children's hospital, but if you have a child for example in distress, and you have multiple hospitals nearby, try being aware beforehand which one is the best for yours or your child’s needs. You don’t want to rush into an ER where there isn’t someone who can confidently and effectively treat you."
Oh, my! Did you know about this?
Weren't these tips and hacks super useful, or what? Oh, my gosh! I wish we all knew more stuff like this. But sadly, most people will never know this unless they work in that particular industry. Are there any trade secrets you can share about where you work? Go right ahead — enlighten us.
