Insiders Dish Details on Their Dirty Company Secrets
Exposing the dark secrets of different companies thanks to the fine people of AskReddit.
If you've worked for a major corporation, chances are you know some pretty damaging information about your employer. Would be a shame if you shared that information with us. We'll help keep your secret. . .
1.
That PETA actually kills animals. I'm pretty sure 10% of the people that know about PETA know this.
2.
Nestlé supports warlords, slavery and other wonderful things in the countries they get cacao from. Oh wait, that isn't exactly a secret, is it?
3.
A New Zealand owned burger chain (that I worked at for 6 years during school/college) sent all it's staff out a "Style Manual", to go with it's new uniform. It recommended we wear MAC makeup (which is $60 a bottle over here), and said, quote: "leave for work looking hot enough to take a selfie #burgerfuel #makeup #hot #selfie". They introduced short shorts, which only went up to size 10, so a chubby girl at my work was reduced to tears having to wear men's shorts. As a manager, I deliberately walked in looking like utter c**p and refusing to wear their precious shorts (my boss bought them a size too small on purpose so everyone's asses were hanging out). I let everyone on my shift wear what they wanted until the day I left. We didn't get paid enough to be patty-flipping strippers. What the flipping f**k.
4.
**Breast Cancer awareness products** So you would think that all of those products that are plastered in pink would have to give money to cancer research. Well if it says "breast cancer awareness" they actually don't have to. The claim is that they are *raising awareness* which is why they are pink. Intentionally misleading though.
5.
I'm not sure if vile is the right description, more like ignorance. I worked at a large electronic retail chain, and on top of the storage door frame was a sign that reads “Work will set you free.”
Google that phrase if you do not recognize its source
6.
Coca-Cola - "In the 1970s, a Coca-Cola franchised bottling plant in Guatemala suffered a spate of mysterious murders of union-affiliated employees ..."
"...To date, there have been a total of 179 major human rights violations of Coca-Cola's workers, including 9 murders. Family members of union activists have been abducted and tortured...."
..."Coca-Cola has been accused of bribing the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD). In 2003 Coca-Cola donated $1 million to the AAPD. Later that year the AAPD stated that "scientific evidence is certainly not clear on the exact role that soft drinks play in terms of children's oral disease", directly contradicting their previous statements such as "consumption of sugars in any beverage can be a significant factor…that contributes to the initiation and progression of dental caries." Critics have stated it certainly appears that Coca-Cola has "paid dentists to stop saying kids shouldn't drink Coke".[37][38]..."
It just goes on and on.
7.
I used to work at Walmart, and during training, they show new employees an hour-long anti-union propaganda film.
8.
Not really a "company secret" but it is pretty vile.
I used to work at Waffle House. I had just come in to start my overnight shift and I was doing my walkthrough, making a list of things for 2nd shift to finish before they left.
I checked the steam tables and found sausage gravy and chili in them. Sausage gravy shouldn't be in the steam tables as long as this had. It gets too runny. Whatever, happens all the time, they don't usually serve it, they're just too lazy to clean it out because it cakes to the sides.
Then I take the lid off the chili.
Gross white fuzzy mold on top. And it's the stinky type. You could smell it the moment the lid came off. I called my manager over to show him. There was obviously something wrong if it was growing mold. Either sat there way too long, or steam table temps were messed up, or whatever. Don't know, don't care. His job, so I called him over. He *immediately* stirs it up and says it's fine.
Ummm.. WHAT?
He says it's not a problem, go ahead and serve it. I told him there's no way I can do that. He pulls me in close, like he's telling me a secret, and says we have to sell that chili because we have no chili made to replace it, and, anyway, food costs are too high. I told him I didn't care, and I'd be throwing it away.
He's insistent. "Throw it away if you want, but it's fine. I'd sell it. You'll just be upsetting customers if they want it and can't have it."
One more time I look him in the eye, raise my voice so the customer about 5 feet away can hear me, and I say "**I'm not selling moldy chili.**"
He just says "Whatever" and storms off. I immediately texted my store manager and district manager. No answer. The next morning I e-mail corporate. No answer. Couple days later I e-mailed the Department of Labor and the Health Department. Got a "thanks for the head's-up" e-mail. Nothing ever happened to the guy. As far as I know (still friends with many of the employees there and the rumor mill is worse than middle school) no one (corporate, DoL, HD) even contacted the store or management.
9.
KFC goes to some pretty crazy lengths to protect their secret spices...only three people in the world know what they are, and they are never allowed to travel on the same plane, or be in the same vicinity. That's next level s**t.
10.
I am a manager at a fast food restaurant (I won't name it because I unfortunately still need my job there) and my regional manager told me I'd 'volunteer' hours or get fired. I asked about certain laws against this and was told that he could fire me for something else, the cameras at said store don't even work. I also had to close the store down by myself, also off the clock, because "managers should fend for themselves." Upon being hired as a manager, I was told I could move up in the company indefinitely. They then fired my boss for her getting paid too much. That's the legitimate reason they used. I'm not even sure how that works. The whole company is corrupt and I wish I could find a new job. Seriously, I was nearly fired because my till was short about 200 dollars. When they checked the cameras (they worked then, this was years ago) they saw it was the district manager's daughter. The matter was dropped and she still works there. I hate my job. None of this is really a 'deep dark secret' but I felt the need to vent.
11.
On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide--now part of Dow--accidentally killed 5,000 residents of Bhopal, India, when its pesticide plant sprung a leak. It abandoned the plant without cleaning it up, and since then, an estimated 15,000 more people have died from complications, most resulting from chemicals released into the groundwater. Although legal investigations have consistently pinpointed Union Carbide as culprit, both Union Carbide and Dow have had to publicly deny these findings. After the accident, Union Carbide compensated victims' families between US$300 and US$500 per victim.
12.
My last job trained us how to deal with "people of lower socioeconomic status." It was a class on how to understand poor people and why they're different from other people. There were charts and videos all explaining how not to think of them as irresponsible, but to understand that their uneducated selves have a different, poor culture. It was one of those situations that leave you looking around the room wondering if anyone else sees how absurd the situation is.
13.
I work at one of the biggest producer of soups worldwide. When you would know how the machine looks and how rare they get cleaned you would NEVER eat instant soup. The first time we did a weekend cleaning, i puked becouse it was so disgusting. Sorry for mistakes im on phone
14.
Abercrombie and Fitch will burn clothes that are damaged even in the slightest way. I'm talking a tiny hole from a security tag, a slight loose threading in the logo on a hoodie. They will not donate these clothes to the people that need them because it would tarnish their reputation as a 'luxury brand'
16.
I was in the Marines for 5 years. Other than a few absolutely SHINING examples of macho-ism and fitness the vast majority of the force is fat, lazy, disgusting, ignorant pieces of human s**t. Literally some of the worst people I've ever met. Sorry to my fellow Devil Dog's but you f*****g know its true and if you don't you are that slob.
17.
Worked at a start-up web design firm a few years back. We were making a browser-based city builder game, and my job was creating little Flash mini-games that could be played in it for resources bonuses and such. There was one game that kinda evolved, got out of hand, and we fleshed it out into a full-fledged standalone game as a means to get attention for our project by submitting this game to Newgrounds and such. Kind of a "hey, if you like this game, I make many more like it for this browser-based city simulator!" Totally legit operation too. Until I found out what the company President was doing. He was going to the other games featured on the sites I submitted to, creating accounts, and dumping on other games. He was giving one-star reviews and 0/10's and thumbsdowns, all shamelessly, all w***y nilly, and dropping the same copy/paste comment to them all. "This game sucks, you should play this game instead:" and he'd link to my game. I'm glad that company dissolved and that fat opportunistic f**k isn't in charge of anything anymore.
20.
Big Mac sauce: Thousand Island dressing. McChicken sauce: Hellmans mayonnaise. I tell people this all the time but they insist "it's different"
21.
Not huge, but if we have less than two of the size you're looking for in the back we're 'out'. We make better revenue and reviews from those 48 hour online deliveries. So if you order from our in store computer with the free shipping you're probably getting something a 150 feet away from where you're standing.
23.
Dunkin donuts at fenway park serves regular coffee as decaf. Kinda scummy for people that are trying to get off caffeine.
24.
My company does retail audits. Stores essentially pay us money to tell them they're being stolen from. It's likely that the majority of us do what we can to ensure it looks like they are being stolen from.
25.
Former sous chef at PF Changs. Don't eat chicken lettuce wraps. It's basically all the parts of the chicken you would normally throw away ground up, mixed with ground water chestnuts and rehydrated mushrooms. Tossed in a wok with what we call dark sauce (tons if salt and sugar). We basically turned waste into our most popular app.
27.
The honest answer: absolutely nothing. Most big companies have huge some-not-so-secret-skeletons in their closets and that people still don't shy away from using their products/services.
28.
I think if people actually saw Taco Bell squirt that meat out of a hose onto that tortilla, they'd have a lot smaller appetite (for like five minutes, then they'd eat it anyways).
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