Tuesday, May 23, 2017

What dirty little secret does your profession hide that the consumer should know?

Reddit top voted comments...

Teacher - it's that time of year to make class placements for next year. Every year there are two or three teachers in the school (elementary) who are so awful, we cry over which students we have to 'sacrifice' to them and hope they are strong enough to survive a year with Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So.

Most everything at Applebees besides meats are microwaved

If you're sitting at a blackjack table and aren't sure what play to make, ask the dealer. No, seriously. We're trained to know the official Blackjack strategy guide and are allowed to give you that information (considered common knowledge).

Many of the books you read - especially romance - aren't written by the person who's name is on the cover. Most romance books are ghostwritten and bought by someone else (often a man, I've found) and published under a female's name with a fake bio.
How do I know this? I'm a ghostwriter.

A certain telephone company with a blue globe logo doesn't actually have a billing department. You are always routed to Sales. The job is not to fix your billing problem, it's to upsell you. If you have a legit billing problem, you will be transferred because the rep doesn't want to deal with anyone that isn't a sale.

After working in the travel industry I can tell you that hotel room rates are often not fixed prices. If guests come to the front desk and ask the price we generally start at the high end. Most people accept this as fact and pay up. However, if a customer is hesitent or threatens to walk out we can sometimes drop the price to keep them there.

Wash your fruit, we find spiders hanging out in grapes and berries all the time, your friendly neighborhood grocery store employee.

11 comments:

Amartel said...

Love how everyone's rushing in here to tell their dirty little secrets.
Probably because a lot of us own our own businesses. If you work for a big company you're telling someone else's dirty little secrets. Speaking of dirt, I grew up in an area where all the kids worked in the fields during the summer (until you were old enough to get an air-conditioned job in town) and HELL YES wash that fruit before you eat it.

Leland said...

I now work in the oil and gas industry. Note, the industry calls itself oil and gas, while protestors it with the name "big oil". Here's the thing, most of the Majors (Shell, Total, ConocoPhillips, BP) were at the Paris Agreements pushing for a carbon tax. XOM's Tillerson called for a carbon tax in 2009. Why? Because most of them have large reserves of natural gas at $3 per thousand cubic feet. Its easier to get that price to double than the price of crude. For example, the price was $2 per mcf at the time the agreement was made. Today the price is $3.3 per mcf. In 2014, Shell announced the discovery from 2 Wells in Utica, PA with one producing 11,200 mcf/day and the other 26,500 mcf/day. You do the math.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

ed, aren't blog readers the end users?

AllenS said...

Evidently, there's a difference between having a job and a profession. I always had a job.

Amartel said...

Oil and gas industry, much like the medical insurance industry (big med?) and the tech industry, finds it more convenient to work with the government than with its consumers.

edutcher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
edutcher said...

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

ed, aren't blog readers the end users?

More like the blogger or the blogress, since they make the most use of the software's utilities. The blog software exists to make the blogger or blogress put his or her ideas on the Net.

Commenting is one feature.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

ed, good re-direction there!

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

ed, maybe you should take Sean Spicer's place at press conferences. I think you would be a natural.

ndspinelli said...

If you get a bill where it states 2 or more attorneys went to some venue where you are not able to check on the veracity, be skeptical. I know partner attorneys who send associates out to look @ fire loss sites, building collapse locations, etc. and bill the same time like they also went, when they were actually in their office billing other time, out golfing, drinking..

chickelit said...

@Leland: XOM will be for hydrogen fuel for similar reasons; the cheapest why to make H2 is from natural gas. It's value added for them.