21 Workers Reveal Top Secrets of Their Jobs That Could Be Useful to Know

It happens that when we work for many years in the same place, we end up embracing different habits that are specific to the industry. Even the language we use during those hours is particular and only understood by those working in the same domain. It is not surprising that each industry sector also has its little secrets, which are best-kept secrets that the general public is not supposed to know but that a few people have decided to disclose.

• If you want to book a rental car, but they’re sold out, book it for a week or two longer than you actually need it, and then just return the car early, and you’ll only get charged for the time that you had it. All the systems owned by rent-a-car companies automatically open up their system to long-term reservations and will ensure you get a car over someone who only booked in for a day or two. Worked there for two years. It’s a dirty business, but at least I learned many rental hacks. © ambdaw / Reddit
• Most electronic medical records allow providers to put pop-up warnings in your chart if you act verbally or physically aggressively. If you yelled at the ER nurse in 2017, the medical assistant you called today begging for a last-minute appointment could see it. © sweetawakening / Reddit
• If you are buying software for your workplace, get a quote and then go silent until it’s the end of the quarter. Then call the sales rep and tell them you can buy it today, but only have enough budget for 70% of the cost. Your chances for a discount go way up at the end of the quarter. © nurplethepurple / Reddit
• Calls are not being answered in the order received. © Player7592 / Reddit
• And let me guess, it’s not unusually high call volume. They just haven’t hired enough people to answer all the calls in a reasonable timeframe. © Astramancer_ / Reddit

• When you order at a drive-thru, the microphone stays on until you move forward. So everyone inside the store with a headset on can hear your conversation until you leave the ordering area. © reb678 / Reddit
• Tourism industry here. Look up when peak season is for the destination you’re looking at. There are usually lower prices are the beginning and end of the season. Try to book at the beginning of the season. Seasonal workers work themselves ragged and are usually completely burnt out at the end. At the beginning of the season, everyone is stoked to start making money again. © firebired_sweet / Reddit
• Most fossils in museums are replicas. These days they’re usually plastic casts from silicone molds of real fossils, but 3D printed replicas made from high-resolution scans are increasingly becoming part of things. © Katy-L-Wood / Reddit
• When moving into a new rental, before you move anything in, take a video of your walk-through and mention and point out everything and anything. Mark the date, time, and address. If they give you a small form to write on, make your own. This can save you lots of issues when you move out. © D****_Skunk1 / Reddit

• In sales: The receptionist is the most important person in the building. They can tell everything you need to know about who you are meeting, what their likes/dislikes are, their schedule, what other salespeople are stopping in, and most importantly.... often get ignored and mistreated by everyone. A little respect and gratitude for their position goes a LONG way in reducing your time to reach a decision maker. © ThatGuyExo / Reddit

• If a menu at a restaurant is large, the food will most likely be frozen. Look for more compact, flowing menus. © imatyourwhim / Reddit
• Vinegar is the best thing to get your cutlery shiny in a restaurant/bar. © Apprehensive_Cry545 / Reddit

• 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. © Somnambule88 / Reddit
• Fast food industry. Beef patties take 2 minutes to broil and are stored in a warmer for 45 minutes before they are dumped in the trash. The most likely time you will get served a fresh patty is in the middle or end of a lunch/dinner rush. An hour before lunch/dinner rush, about a dozen popular burgers are usually premade and microwaved for about 10 seconds when served. Avoid being the first to order during lunch/dinner rush or make alterations to the burger by adding toppings, extra sauce, etc. They will prepare a fresh burger in those cases. Premium burgers are never premade. Fries are pre-salted, so asking for no-salt guarantees fresh fries. © arkReaper90 / Reddit
• 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. © wmnplzr / Reddit

What is your job? What secrets behind your job could be useful to us if we knew them?