32 Workers Reveal The Most Disturbing Thing Their Company Gets Away With

1. Pretty much free access to gas at a gas station.

I worked for a gas station. Access to the 75000-gallon underground tank is protected by a single lock less strong then the ones on high school lockers. The 4-digit password on it was written on the lock in Sharpie (not that you needed it, it was the store address).

2. A fake non-profit.

Non-profit that’s actually not a non-profit. We claim we donate all of our proceeds to research for children’s orthopedics, which doesn’t happen. It’s really disappointing, as the executive director claims the company is worth $3million.

3. Marking something as “great value” in retail.

When I used to work in retail we had these things called “great values.” Every sale we’d put yellow tags on top of items that weren’t actually on sale, which we were allowed to do because it didn’t actually say “sale” or “special”, just great value.

It was always funny to see people walk by them and say something like “That’s a really good deal” and buy the item even though it was regular price.

I’ve seen similar stuff at other department stores so I assume it must be fairly common.

4. Tossing strong chemicals onto the street.

I used to work at Ritz Camera, they went bankrupt several times and were always cutting corners. After the first bankruptcy the photo labs stopped properly disposing of the printing chemicals. Instead they poured them down the sink or on the ground outside the store. I watched over 30 gallons go down the drain on my last day.

5. The unjust power a governor has.

State government. The governor can appoint his friends and buddies to prominent positions in state government even though the people don’t even meet the bare minimum requirements for the jobs.

6. Hiring people for a “trial period” at a restaurant.

I used to work in a restaurant where on busy nights, or on nights when staff were sick, they would ring up people to come in for a 3 hour “trial”, and get them to run out food and drinks to the tables. All unpaid of course, followed up at the end of the shift by “Sorry, you’re just not the right type of person we’re looking for.”

7. Hire essentially full-time temps just to bypass healthcare benefits.

Hire “temps” for years at a time, just so they don’t have to pay for heath care, holidays, paid time off, etc.

I guess you can’t be 44th richest man in the world by being decent, eh Michael Dell?

8. New Horizons apparently advertises fake jobs.

I worked for New Horizons (a franchise company that offers computer skills training.) They regularly (and anonymously) advertise great jobs for techies. These jobs do not exist. They collect resumes and use the info to contact job-seekers, saying the hiring company they applied to wants to interview them, but they require more training. If you bite and pay for training, you are told later that the job was filled by someone else. Essentially, New Horizons advertises fake jobs, gives false hope for a job that doesn’t exist, charges the poor job-seeking saps for training, rinses and repeats. They are still doing this today, with generic job posts all over CareerBuilder. CareerBuilder knows, but doesn’t care because they get paid to place the fake ads.

9. US Navy ships dumping waste into water.

US navy ships throw all kinds of shit overboard. paper, plastic metal haz waste, insane amounts of jet fuel. The casual attitude everybody has towards it is pretty disturbing too.

10. The “surprise” flavor at the ice cream shop.

I worked at a chain ice cream parlor one summer in high school. Whenever we made a mistake with a sundae or prepared item, it went into a container in a freezer. It was one of the buckets we used for “hand-packed” pints and gallons, so it looked like any other to-go ice cream for retail sale.

It would become a gross mash of various flavors and toppings, whipped cream, nuts, whatever weird crap people ordered. As it got full, we’d smash it down until it was a relatively solid, striated block of ice cream and stuff.

It was on the menu as ” Surprise” and it was supposed to be a “marvelous mixture of our finest flavors and toppings.” It was so freaking nasty-looking and after a week or so it began to smell weird. I mean some stuff just doesn’t go together at all – chocolate and peanut butter in with sherbet and fruits and rubbery half-melted and refrozen whipped cream.

Every time someone asked about it we’d all discourage them in any way possible. When the owner was around though, all we could do is smile and hand it over.

11. The gross stuff that “healthy” fast-food restaurants get away with.

I work at a “healthy” fast food restaurant (like chipotle). Bug in the sauce station? Don’t say anything, scoop it out while no one’s looking. Cutting peppers, find worms inside (quite common)– wash them out, cut any rotten parts of the pepper out, continue cutting. Kid sticks his hand under the sneezeguard and touches food while no one but you is looking? Best case scenario we pick out the food he touched, worst case we just leave it (unless someone noticed of course). Mind you, we are a CLEAN restaurant. We sweep, deck scrub, mop, wipe down, and vacuum everything every night. I can only imagine how bad “dirty” restaurants are. Working at a restaurant makes me hesitant to eat at other restaurants, unfortunately.

12. A science museum that does not practice what it preaches.

My last job was at a science museum with elaborate exhibits on recycling, water conservation, how to prevent contamination from runoff, etc. The office area of the museum did not have recycling bins (I kept a cardboard box on my desk labeled “recycling–do not throw out” and personally delivered my recyclables to the bin in the parking garage every week). Worst of all, the museum contracted with a pest control agency to have the building sprayed regularly…to kill spiders that lived on the outside of the building. Not ants or roaches or any other pest that is actually problematic, but spiders, predators that naturally control the pest population. The extermination was ordered regularly solely for aesthetics, and the pesticides were not “green.” The worst part about this? The science museum is built directly over Lake Michigan, so all that pesticide runs directly into the water below. Just a couple examples of the ridiculous hypocrisy at work at the institution, and one reason I quit that job.

13. Hiring unnecessary employees just to get a raise.

My ex-boss made it seem like our department was always swamped. He kept justifying more and more hiring until there were ten people. This of course led to hiring two managers under him and he got bumped to a director level. The reality is that there is only enough work for two people. These are all high paying technical jobs. Basically this guy hired a ton of people to do work that didn’t exist so he could use a large head count to get himself promoted.

14. Turns out the local news is not as honest as they let on.

Local news. We don’t tell you certain stories in fear of getting sued.

15. “Sale” items.

I used to work at a K-Mart that was going out of business. During the liquidation process all the prices were doubled and put on “sale” again for the original price. People ate that shit up.

16. A drug cartel masked as a restaurant.

At one of the restaurants I have worked at, crime (especially drug related) was rampant. Myself and one or two other managers were basically holding the store together while people did heroin in the back, sold drugs out of the alley, got arrested, shot guns, all kinds of stuff. I’ve got some ridiculous stories. Pretty crazy.

On my first day, a fellow employee tried to sell me an assault rifle with no visible serial number, very clearly the most illegal thing I had ever seen.

Later, this guy was fired for shooting said gun in the alley next to our building, at like 2AM. We live in a really low violent crime city so I don’t even think the police were called/showed up.

17. Government security contractors are apparently not good at their job.

Government security contractor. We provide security to several hundred federal facilities across the country. We brag about how we have a tremendous quality control program in place to prevent unauthorized entry into government buildings. In reality, our program is shit and it is incredibly easy to sneak a weapon into one of the buildings we protect.

18. Banks love to swindle money out of their clients.

I’m a repossession agent for a bank. Make sure you read your contracts carefully. We love sending notice of defaults for full balances, forcing you to restructure so that we can get more money in the door over a longer period of time. We know you don’t have the money to sue us for violating the terms of your contract, so we do what we want.

19. Lying about weight-loss results so that the gym can make more money.

I (used to) work in a Gym.

They would do ANYTHING to get members to sign a Personal Training Contract.

They would show “Before and After” pictures of Previous Clients and lie about the process. One lady lost 100 lbs. in about a year, working with a trainer 4-5 times a week, and seeing a professional nutritionist on the side. When pitching to a client, “This lady lost over 100lbs in a little over 3 months, working solely with our trainer 2 times a week.”

20. Essentially, destroying the world’s economy.

Nearly bankrupted the world in 2008 selling credit default swaps.

21. False advertising dogs as rescue puppies.

I don’t work there anymore, but the PetSmart I worked at brought in puppy mill dogs for “adoptions.” People wouldn’t do their research and end up thinking they’re rescuing a puppy when they were really just funding cruelty.
If the dog you’re adopting is $800, you’re probably not adopting.

22. The atrocious working conditions at a heating and air conditioning factory.

I work in an unheated, unairconditioned factory that manufactures.. wait for it.. heating and air conditioning units. Temps inside can exceed 110 Fahrenheit in the Summer, fainting and heat strokes are a common thing.

Pays better than fast-food, though.

23. The insane mark-up of drugs.

Medical Industry.
Most hospitals have a mark-up on their drugs of somewhere in the neighborhood of 600-900% with some hospitals having a mark-up of over 1500%. That means a generic 200 mg ibuprofen will cost you somewhere around 8-16 dollars.

A bag of saline, which is just salt water, could cost you over $50.

24. Ignoring wrongdoing by anyone that has a powerful position.

I work at a major college in the Midwest. Any wrongdoing on behalf of anyone above manager level is NEVER punished. I swear one day one of these fools is going to kill an employee in cold blood, and get let off for it. They form cabals to demonize and ruin people they merely “don’t like.” When failure occurs at the highest levels, they never admit a mistake was made. It makes me sick. This is why people go postal.

25. The favoring at hospitals.

I work at a Hospital.

Your life does have a price.

Edit: Not on my dime though.

26. Reusing everything at a Thai restaurant.

Worked at a Thai restaurant. The owner insisted I pour the undrunk wine back into the bottles. When I refused the headwaiter just did it. They reused everything. Even the pineapples from the fried rice. But damn the red curry was so good.

27. Discrimination at Abercrombie.

Ex-Abercrombie HR manager here. The company still discriminates based on appearance in the most objectionable way. To this day I still don’t know why people spend money there.

28. The calorie count of their salads.

Applebees waitress here. Our salads are almost 2000 calories.

29. Not telling anyone about the e-coli positive lake.

I worked at a beach. The lake tested positive for e-coli, yet we stayed open and allowed people to swim because “it was a different part of the lake that tested positive.” It’s a lake, it shares the same water. None of the patrons knew either.

30. Favoring workers based on how scantily dressed they are.

Favoring employees based on how much skin they show and how much make up they wear. And it is an educational institution.

31. The things that get disposed at a recycling center.

I work at a recycling center and just the other day someone threw a dead cat into the cardboard shredder.

32. Getting paid a really ridiculous amount.

I’m a manager in an international professional services firm (accounting/finance). My time is charged out at $680/hour. It’s fucking ludicrous. I can’t do anything in an hour that’s worth that kind of money.