What insider secrets can you tell us about some business or profession?

How about this: after working at an associate Starbucks for almost a year, I can say that the standalone Starbucks don’t really care about the associate Starbucks (i.e., the ones inside grocery stores). I’ve called the associate stores the red-headed stepchild, and I don’t think I’m far off.

We were told that we weren’t any different than the standalone Starbucks, but we totally were. From dress code to tips policy to benefits and perks, there was very little correlation between the stores.

Also, an empty Starbucks is a boring Starbucks (at least for the barista). There’s only so much coffee you can drink (even though we weren’t supposed to). :D

Co-Op gives employes all hot chocolate sizes for 35 cents and it’s almost winter!!

From the Grocery biz:

The person at the counter – any counter – may not be chatting you up simply because they’re friendly and think you’re hot. Sometimes, they have to chat you up and engage in silly banter. As in, they get in job trouble if they don’t.

Sometimes the sell-by date on that perishable product isn’t the original sell-by date – it’s been retagged and put back in the case if it still looks and smells okay.

Never take the first item on the rack, if it’s something that’s perishable. People sometimes put an item in their cart, spend an hour in the store, decide they don’t want it and put it back (if they’re nice) or abandon it at the register (if they’re evil). Those items are often put back and are the first one in line to grab, so God knows how long it was outside of refrigeration.

From working Janitorial:

Sometimes, they skip vacuuming because the carpet is already clean. It’s not like you can tell.

If you fold the toilet paper into a fancy little point, and the point is still there the next time you come in to clean, you may be able to skip cleaning that bathroom because no one’s used it. It also pleases the customer, because they have fancy folded toilet paper.

From working in a theatre box office:

Theatres sometimes count the number of popcorn tubs before and after a shift to see how many were sold, and compare that to sales receipts. Sneaky ushers sometimes, therefore, grab the abandoned popcorn tubs that slothful patrons leave on the floor, refill them with popcorn, and sell them for cash that they pocket. I never engaged in this, but coworkers did. I seldom buy movie popcorn anymore. (Edited to add: I guess this one may be improper and/or illegal, but… well, it’s informative.)

UPS delivery trucks’ routes are designed so that they almost always turn right. It cuts down time and saves money, gas, etc.

@laureth I always grab from the back that came out wrong

@deni how can right turns save gas and time? not to mention it must be a b**ch on alignment

@laureth, thanks for the great answer—just the kind of glimpses I was wondering about! I meant nothing that’s illegal to tell (such as insider trading information). Definitely tell us if the business or the employees are doing something illegal! The public wants to know.

@XOIIO Not having to sit at red lights and wait to turn left, I guess. I dunno really, I think it’s not like they never go left, but the routes are just mapped out so that they can save time that would be spent waiting to turn left through traffic. Who knows!

Many moons ago, in my yester years, I worked at Chick Fil A, and more than once I dropped raw chicken on the ground and cooked it anyhow. It would have been way more of an inconvenience for me and for the customer if I had to go retrieve more from the freezer, and it gets fried and I’m sure some of the gross stuff from the floor was burned off :) lol, typing about this made me chuckle a little.

Damnit @deni – now I will be obsessed with checking the tread on UPS truck tires to see if it wears off.

I can tell you that in the movie industy that the 10–20 second sentence you heard the lead man utter to his beloved took about 2–4 hours of setup time- more if outdoor conditions are off or other issues arise.

there is really no such thing as a free estimate. Somebody will eventually pay for that.

From working in residential lending: there are almost always garbage fees on mortgages. Go over the Good Faith Estimate of Closing Costs with a fine toothed comb. Review the first copy you get (right after the loan is originated), the next copy you get (once you are approved) and the HUD I closing statement (at closing). They will sneak in junk fees that hardly anyone notices.

From working in a library: if the catalog shows a book is available but it isn’t on the shelf, ask someone to check the sorting area, it may have been returned and not made it back to the shelf yet.

-When working at hospitals its heavily implied by the administrator to all admissions staff, ER doctors, and nurses…. that when a “self pay” patient comes in (which is the term used for “no insurance”), everyone knows to get rid of them “stabilize them” as soon as possible because there’s no money coming in with them. If the patient has insurance, then they have a greater chance of being kept in the hospital a little longer or getting a little bet extra treatment. This is commonly suspected by everyone, but I know from experience it’s true.

Also: those who actually do pay with cash, pay rates about ⅓ higher than the rates paid for by insurance companies and about 40% higher than rates paid for by Medicare. Hospitals charge individuals higher rates than they do insurance companies. You can bicker your hospital bill down, too. Almost always.

From working at a farm:
• Ugly fruits and veggies are often the tastiest.
• Organic farms spray just as much as conventional farms. Sure they use organic sprays, but we really don’t know for sure if those are any better for you. If you’re really concerned about pesticides, find an IPM farm.
• Many vendors at farmers markets don’t actually grow the items they sell. They buy them wholesale from larger farms like the one I work at.
• Barn-raised animals are often healthier than free-range or (obviously) cage-raised.

Things to know about working at Hot Topic:

-If you invent something while working for Hot Topic, they own it.
-If you are a manager at Hot Topic, it will be almost impossible for you to find a second job.
-Our training emphasizes customer service above everything else. That’s why we greet you as soon as you walk in the door. :)
-It is insanely easy to be a sales associate at Hot Topic.

@Kraigmo: Point of interest: At my old doctor’s office, patients with no insurance paid about half of what patients with insurance paid.

Catalog phone sales rep:

Sometimes we would muck up orders on purpose if the customer was an ass. One customer of mine kept getting his trousers in the wrong size (always too small, of course); he eventually gave up and never ordered from us again. Other times orders were simply never finalized – we reserved this tactic for the real jerks, since it didn’t give them any leverage. How could we fix a problem with an order if the order never existed in the first place? Another highly used tactic to get rid of annoying customers was to simply hang up on them. If they were asking too many questions that I didn’t have the patience or time to answer (sales reps are reprimanded if their calls exceed a certain length of time – too many lengthy calls and you’re opportunity for a quarterly pay increase is denied), a simple “excuse me my computer locked up, let me grab a supervisor to help me, please hold” did the trick. Instead of pressing hold you would ‘accidentally’ hang up – this way if the call is traced back to you you have a plausible excuse for what happened. Hanging up on a few customers was a great way to bring down your call averages for the day.

Should I even mention how all billing info for every single customer was openly available to every employee in the company, including the sizable amount of high school kids that worked as little as 4–5 hours per week?

So much of my business (film and television) is documented that I don’t know if there are any actual secrets to be told anymore about it. But I’d be happy to answer if someone has a specific question!

And if you want a union job on film, be a Teamster (it’s best if you’re Italian; the crafty union professions in film and TV are all either Irish or Italian). I was working on a show 10 years ago where the Teamster captain was making US$8K a week and the drivers were making US$5K. I can’t imagine what the rate is now.

@aprilsimnel, probably most of what you know would be unknown to laymen unless we went and looked it up. So maybe not actually closely held and guarded secrets, but just things that are generally unknown (such as what Dog wrote above). Any particularly choice bits of insider knowledge that would surprise the uninitiated?

I have been trying to think of what I might know from my professional life, and I can think of plenty that most people wouldn’t know, but none of it is interesting except to others of my ilk. Does anyone care that the world is full of English majors who can’t write and are shocked if you expect them to know words like “antecedent” and “modifier”? Is anyone fascinated by the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive? Does anyone really wonder how an index is made? My life as an editor is an open book (ha ha) that I don’t think anyone could be bothered to read.

I kind of wonder about the index.

>> smooch <<

@Jeruba: I want to be a video editor when I graduate so, yeah, I’m kind of interested in how other editors in other fields do their editing. There’s something about being the person who puts it all together and makes sure it is the best it could possibly be that is just thrilling.

From working in the lawn care business for years and years:

No, you do not need 5 or 6 applications to your yard per year. They will insist that you do, and that this is the only ‘program’ they offer. Be firm. In the Mid-Atlantic region anyway, here’s what most lawns thrive on: an early spring fertilization with preventative weed control (keeps the crabgrass from coming up), a late spring fertilization with broadleaf weed control (for dandelions), and a fall fertilization. Have your local extension agency do a soil test for you to see if you need a lime or sulfur application.

If your lawn has a big problem with weeds, you need more grass. In the fall, aerate and seed your yard. Follow the watering instructions. Do this every fall until you have thick grass, and that will keep most of the weeds at bay.

Unless you live in the desert, do not plant Zoysia grass.

There is no such thing as ‘natural’ weed killer. Well, not one that works anyway. What you want is someone who will spot treat your weeds, rather than spraying weed control over the entire lawn if it doesn’t need it.

That stuff that looks like dog vomit in your mulch? It’s a fungus called… dog vomit. It thrives in dark, moist locations. Just shovel it off and throw it away.

Water your lawn/plants in the early morning, before it gets too hot. Watering in the middle of the day can burn the grass (sun + water droplets = magnification = burns), and watering at night promotes fungus growth. Also, water deeply.

Set your mower blade on it’s highest setting, at least 3 to 3½ inches off the ground. Try to never mow off more than ⅓ of the blade length at one time. Keep the blade sharp. If your grass gets a whitish/grayish fringe at the tips, your blade is dull. Leave the clippings on the grass… they are full of nutrients.

“Pesticide” is a very broad term that includes things like Clorox bleach, Lysol, Purell hand sanitizer, and mouse traps.

IPM (which @cprevite mentioned up there ^) is a good thing to look for in a lawn company, too. It stands for Integrated Pest Management.

Industries like this one that use a lot of water can get special permits and a tool that allows them to take water directly from fire hydrants.

Successful, innovative teams need diversity. Many dimensions of diversity.

@augustlan , would you happen to have a little more tid bits on St. Augustine?? PLEASE Please Please??

@sccrowell I only know what’s best for my region: Turf type tall fescue. Sorry. :(

Although they call jail “corrections” it’s not; it is a multi-million dollar BUSINESS.