It’s quite likely that, at some point in time, you were asked to keep a secret at work. You may have even signed a non-disclosure agreement or NDA. They are very common documents that employees have to sign… as well as people working with sensitive data and clients.
However, some of the sensitive information you’re forced to keep is beyond weird. Members of the AskReddit online community finally revealed the industry secrets they had to stay silent about. We’ve collected their wildest stories to share with you, including those from people whose NDAs have finally expired.
#61
When you buy a mattress from Saatva and they haul away your old one for free, it isn’t being recycled as advertised—it’s going straight to the local landfill. Despite what they claim on their own sustainability page, the mattresses also aren’t actually made in the U.S.; the components are manufactured overseas and simply assembled here.
The company also required call center employees to “whitewash” their names. The owners, who have been friends since childhood, run the business together and the culture reflects it.
And the pricing? The markup is enormous—around 50–60%. It’s all by design.
The company also required call center employees to “whitewash” their names. The owners, who have been friends since childhood, run the business together and the culture reflects it.
And the pricing? The markup is enormous—around 50–60%. It’s all by design.
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6points
#62
Not a secret that falls under NDA, but one most people do not know:
If you boycott spending money in online games but still play them you are not making a difference. A drop in total active players will mean more to a studio than a drop in revenue.
I have worked on 3 well known live service games. All of them would have emergency meetings if we saw a significant dip in engagement time. The largest fear in the industry right now is losing players to things like tiktok, easy to get into and endless content. We can work on converting people to buy stuff if they are in the game, we cannot as easily convince someone to leave tiktok to play our game.
If you boycott spending money in online games but still play them you are not making a difference. A drop in total active players will mean more to a studio than a drop in revenue.
I have worked on 3 well known live service games. All of them would have emergency meetings if we saw a significant dip in engagement time. The largest fear in the industry right now is losing players to things like tiktok, easy to get into and endless content. We can work on converting people to buy stuff if they are in the game, we cannot as easily convince someone to leave tiktok to play our game.
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6points
#63
Game company CEO I used to work for would pay for female worker toenail clippings. People were pretty sure he used to put them in his sandwich and eat them.
Coworker who was asked if she'd participate (in private) told me about it - she didn't do it technically but I'd give her mine to give to him and we'd split the commission.
Not making this up.
Coworker who was asked if she'd participate (in private) told me about it - she didn't do it technically but I'd give her mine to give to him and we'd split the commission.
Not making this up.
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5points
#64
No NDA but when I worked at McDonalds (a long long time ago), we would keep chicken products, veggie and fish burgers in the warming draw all day instead of the recommended 20 minutes. Also, when you made up burgers and put them on the rack you put a number behind it to say when they needed to be thrown out (usually 5 or 10 minutes). Managers would repeatedly change the numbers when it got quiet, so a burger could end up sat there for an hour before it was sold. I won’t eat in any fast food restaurant now but when I did I would always ask
For a slight variation, such as no onions, to ensure I got a fresh burger.
Final thing for McDonald’s, I started working there at 16. One night I did a close and the manager (M40s) told me I would be a lot more attractive if I had bigger chest. It was just me, him and another male. It really shook me up and I never did a close again.
For a slight variation, such as no onions, to ensure I got a fresh burger.
Final thing for McDonald’s, I started working there at 16. One night I did a close and the manager (M40s) told me I would be a lot more attractive if I had bigger chest. It was just me, him and another male. It really shook me up and I never did a close again.
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5points
#65
Walmart pays department managers to spy on competitors. They have a handheld scanner device they give you to go to other places and scan their price tags. Those all go into a big database to keep track of how much they should price their own products to keep people coming in. The workers are told if they meet resistance to never mention Walmart and deny any wrongdoing.
5points
#66
Did some work for a game show and everything was 100% scripted. All the contestants were informed about the questions and had to give the pre-prepared answers in order to maximize entertainment value.
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5points
#67
The stuff you’re donating to a certain large “charity” is being raided and picked apart from “adults” to give to their kids or themselves long before it reaches those in need. Also, any roundup donations you make to retailers is just a tax write off and they usually don’t donate.
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5points
#68
HFC were an investment bank that were acquired by HSBC after being issued a massive fine for predatory lending.
Thing is, the predatory lending never stopped. The loans teams were notorious for persuading people who had been turned down for loans to re-apply, after an underwriter had already declared them to be unlikely to be able to repay.
The member of staff would simply change certain details (changing the job title of 'File clerk' to 'professional' is one example). If you wanted to know who was committing fraud at HFC, you simply had to see who was working during their lunch-break, because phone calls weren't recorded during lunch.
The teams selling Income Protection Plan weren't much better, making it sound that you were just receiving information, when in fact you were signing up to a plan which could cost up to 40 quid a month.
Commission bonuses could be huge (I was making a headteacher's salary for what amounted to call-centre work) so the incentive to commit fraud was considerable.
After one member of staff was caught sending out a plan to someone who couldn't speak English, the department manager said "I'm not angry that you did it, I'm angry that you got caught.".
Thing is, the predatory lending never stopped. The loans teams were notorious for persuading people who had been turned down for loans to re-apply, after an underwriter had already declared them to be unlikely to be able to repay.
The member of staff would simply change certain details (changing the job title of 'File clerk' to 'professional' is one example). If you wanted to know who was committing fraud at HFC, you simply had to see who was working during their lunch-break, because phone calls weren't recorded during lunch.
The teams selling Income Protection Plan weren't much better, making it sound that you were just receiving information, when in fact you were signing up to a plan which could cost up to 40 quid a month.
Commission bonuses could be huge (I was making a headteacher's salary for what amounted to call-centre work) so the incentive to commit fraud was considerable.
After one member of staff was caught sending out a plan to someone who couldn't speak English, the department manager said "I'm not angry that you did it, I'm angry that you got caught.".
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4points
#69
The sub-prime lending market doesn't care if you can afford your bill. The way they make their money is by packaging and reselling your debt.
I used to work for a bank that's a Sandler subsidiary. I helped to write the algorithms that helped to determine whether or not an applicant would get auto approved, conditional approved (additional manual underwriting needed) or rejected. The interest rates were absolutely nuts.. 29% APR.
On a call with the C-Suite execs and board I was told it didn't matter if people could actually afford it. They were targeting people who could make their payment for 3-6 months because that's how long the company had to keep the debt on the books before they could package it up and resell it to someone else.
If the customer did default they could have their vehicle repossessed and auctioned off/resold by a lot that had a strategic agreement with the lending company and the customer was still on the hook for the debt.
It was never about finding people who could pay off their car, it was just about milking as much monthly fees.
"A subscription service to desperation" as one of my co-workers put it.
I used to work for a bank that's a Sandler subsidiary. I helped to write the algorithms that helped to determine whether or not an applicant would get auto approved, conditional approved (additional manual underwriting needed) or rejected. The interest rates were absolutely nuts.. 29% APR.
On a call with the C-Suite execs and board I was told it didn't matter if people could actually afford it. They were targeting people who could make their payment for 3-6 months because that's how long the company had to keep the debt on the books before they could package it up and resell it to someone else.
If the customer did default they could have their vehicle repossessed and auctioned off/resold by a lot that had a strategic agreement with the lending company and the customer was still on the hook for the debt.
It was never about finding people who could pay off their car, it was just about milking as much monthly fees.
"A subscription service to desperation" as one of my co-workers put it.
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4points
#70
House Hunters is filmed well after, and the two houses you don’t pick aren’t houses you looked at.
EDIT: so this blew up. Some extra details... Real estate agent we met day one; new to us. She provided access to the other two options. One was her actual house that was never for rent. Other was her listing.
Idea is to give an idea what it's like, but they only have 5 days to film. Fair play; it wasn't as bad as some others we'd heard. We had a great time doing it. So this isn't to beat up the show; it's just a secret to preserve the mood of the show.
Other small things... "budget" is manipulated for USD, and estimated. Editing is done after all footage is sent to the US - and boy do they edit it. You don't realise what you say a few times is suddenly a show theme you didn't expect. Maps are approximate for obvious reasons. You get paid about $150/pp/day, so don't expect much.
All in all, it's a "secret", but in our experience it wasn't to "fool" the viewer, rather to get it all done in a reasonable time. The story of moving is real, and in general they do a good job of sharing your experience. They do what they do out of necessity to make a good, repeatable show. But it's not a perfect documentary, nor could it be.
It's close enough, and I must say that HHI was a show that gave us the courage to move overseas from the US when it wasn't nearly as common as today. Grateful for what it is.
EDIT2: About the staging - our order was shoot the other two houses and RE meet & greet. On the last day (or 2 for us), movers arrive and pack your place. Then they shoot your place, and the movers wait down the street literally with your stuff in the back of their truck. At the end of the shoot, they put it all back. We didn't have time that day, so next day we shot the "resolution" part with the "party", the chop-veggies scene they all seem to have, and F&F there, and a thanks with the film crew.
EDIT3: Common question - why "lie" about the houses. Simply they hire a local film crew for 1 week. That's why they can afford to make this show thousands of times. It's the only way to be profitable and generate this much content.
EDIT: so this blew up. Some extra details... Real estate agent we met day one; new to us. She provided access to the other two options. One was her actual house that was never for rent. Other was her listing.
Idea is to give an idea what it's like, but they only have 5 days to film. Fair play; it wasn't as bad as some others we'd heard. We had a great time doing it. So this isn't to beat up the show; it's just a secret to preserve the mood of the show.
Other small things... "budget" is manipulated for USD, and estimated. Editing is done after all footage is sent to the US - and boy do they edit it. You don't realise what you say a few times is suddenly a show theme you didn't expect. Maps are approximate for obvious reasons. You get paid about $150/pp/day, so don't expect much.
All in all, it's a "secret", but in our experience it wasn't to "fool" the viewer, rather to get it all done in a reasonable time. The story of moving is real, and in general they do a good job of sharing your experience. They do what they do out of necessity to make a good, repeatable show. But it's not a perfect documentary, nor could it be.
It's close enough, and I must say that HHI was a show that gave us the courage to move overseas from the US when it wasn't nearly as common as today. Grateful for what it is.
EDIT2: About the staging - our order was shoot the other two houses and RE meet & greet. On the last day (or 2 for us), movers arrive and pack your place. Then they shoot your place, and the movers wait down the street literally with your stuff in the back of their truck. At the end of the shoot, they put it all back. We didn't have time that day, so next day we shot the "resolution" part with the "party", the chop-veggies scene they all seem to have, and F&F there, and a thanks with the film crew.
EDIT3: Common question - why "lie" about the houses. Simply they hire a local film crew for 1 week. That's why they can afford to make this show thousands of times. It's the only way to be profitable and generate this much content.
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3points
#71
Lapetite daycare has their workers write positive reviews on their websites by employees. They also have employees ask friends to write them. They may not have children in their care at all.
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3points
#72
I was an extra on a sequel of a movie while the first movie was still in theatres and it was kind of a huge deal at the time, so I had to sign an NDA.
They even had a code name for the movie: Untitled Sports Movie.
But this was in 2009, so my NDA is expired and I can reveal this very exciting news: I am an extra in the movie Twilight: New Moon!
They even had a code name for the movie: Untitled Sports Movie.
But this was in 2009, so my NDA is expired and I can reveal this very exciting news: I am an extra in the movie Twilight: New Moon!
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2points
#73
Ok I got one:
Paul McCartney and all the beatles members are bi.
Met a former Agent/producer before they blew up.
They were not located in London yet, but outside, and much smaller.
They had many parties with men/women mixed and even some did it with each other.
The producer/agent did not want to leave her small town, and did not go to London (where they then got very popular)
Also at least two members slept with Ono later on.
Paul McCartney and all the beatles members are bi.
Met a former Agent/producer before they blew up.
They were not located in London yet, but outside, and much smaller.
They had many parties with men/women mixed and even some did it with each other.
The producer/agent did not want to leave her small town, and did not go to London (where they then got very popular)
Also at least two members slept with Ono later on.
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2points
#74
Buy 10-12 lottery tickets at a time. If you have $12 to blow on gambling, don't buy 2 $6 tickets, buy 12 $1 tickets. Different for each state, but we had minimum string of consecutive losers before you're guaranteed a winner.
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1point
#75
The digital signage screen set up in a library in Munich has a fat scratch on the surface that was "fixed" with vaseline on the day of its installation.
So I've heard.
So I've heard.
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0points
