"insider" knowledge and stories from your job.

[FAST6191]

In a reply to a blog post earlier I shared some of the odd things that landlords and the like get up to, and how it results in a cool source of things for some involved with them when places get abandoned. Similar such conversations in real life and on IRC also occur regularly enough.

I spoke to a former manager of a hardware store a little while back and he would detail what happened with some of the returns, and the really nice wood boxes some of the things were shipped in and the suppliers did not want back, and more besides.

Electrical retail appears quite similar, especially with dead stock/end of line stuff that is more complicated than their logistics/stock control cares to deal with.

I spoke to some people in a makeup factory and some of the technically failed but otherwise perfectly fine, end of line... type things had a fascinating future at lot of the time.

It is generally assumed that if you are working on a building site then you will be fishing things out of the skip and any extras left over are also fair game.

The landlords thing I will skim here as well. People will often leave a fully furnished location (students, people emigrating, professionals that don't know anybody to give/sell stuff to) so that can be an interesting source of things) so the general handyman/builder that many such landlords retain often do well for themselves. Some of ones working for the dodgy London loan companies ones often get dragged in during the middle of renovations so that is a nice source of often expensive building supplies.

Supermarkets and such like have whole websites on their dodgy dealings and things worth knowing about but they play here.

Call centres are less of a thing here but no small source of amusement.

Share how you will, however I am a scavenger without shame, very much enjoy learning of underhanded things people do and will hack any system merely if it is put in front of me (thinking stuff like http://www.pleasepress1.com/uk/ ) so that is what I am looking for here. Nice sources, dodgy dealings you have seen or just really nice one off scores.

 

[Deleted member 377734]

Fast story: I got in a fight with my boss and kept my job. He was fired, not me.

 

[VinsCool]

We never actually followed the temperature taking protocol in storage fridges and counters.
We basically entered random data just so inspectors never see anything unusual.

It's not like we had defective systems, we had fucking 24/24 monitors showing the temperatures, but we had to use a probe thermometer just to confirm.
No need to say that, having tons of tasks to do, we never had time for this shit, each hour. We just entered stuff at random just so they shut the fuck up about it.

 

[CallmeBerto]

IT doesn't do as much work as they want you to think they do.

We mostly just make sure things don't break and once that is in place we watch cat videos all day.

 

[DeoNaught]

Expiration date is written a couple days/weeks before the food actually expires, mostly to be safe.

 

[lordkaos]

Expiration date is written a couple days/weeks before the food actually expires, mostly to be safe.

do you place the new products behind the ones that are going to expire first?

 

[slaphappygamer]

do you place the new products behind the ones that are going to expire first?

I know this to be true. Always get your perishables from the back.

 

[HamBone41801]

your dog likes your pet sitter more than he likes you.

 

[gman666]

I have a lot of dirty stories about the supermarket that I worked at...

1. Don't use the blood pressure machines... No one actually cleans them, and one time at the store where I worked, a man was caught masturbating on the machine.
2. Don't use the restrooms at a supermarket store or a store that stays open 24 hours. Homeless people will use them as their personal bathhouse.
3. Don't think that workers will clean anything that you touch while in store. That includes phones, help buttons, carts, baskets, doorknobs, countertops, conveyor belts, etc.
4. Most bakery departments don't clean their baking sheets as often as you'd like... I saw mold growing extensively on a stack of sheets.
5. Don't grab the bread at the front eye level... The bread stockers will purposefully place the oldest bread front and center because they know that you'll grab that first without looking.
6. All the older bread (1-2 days before/after sell-by date) is usually given away in droves to food banks. I've literally processed 5 carts full of bread and gave it all away.
7. The floral department gives 2 shits about water usage. I've been instructed to dump a truck full of water into the drains.

Not sure if this all counts as insider knowledge, but here's my submission.

 

[slaphappygamer]

Working at a supermarket, I learned that the bread was baked at 4pm. I’d take my lunch at 430 and get some butter. A full load of warm French bread in the winter is fantastic.....especially after pulling all the carts in (this was before those machines that push them that you see now).

 

[DeoNaught]

I know this to be true. Always get your perishables from the back.

Yeah, because people are most likely to pick the one in the front, so we put the old in the front, and new in the back, so nothing expires

 

[PuNKeMoN]

I work for a car rental place.

The car you reserved is not there. Especially in the middle of the week. You either get a free upgrade, or you "get talked into" paying more for "something better".

If they are telling you they don't accept debit cards, it is because they can't tell you they are out of cars.

THE KICKER
ANY renter is covered by the state required minimum insurance BY DEFAULT, so even if you don't have personal car insurance, you are covered for liability. The employees can't tell you that because the company wants you to pay the extra for the "protection plan"

 

[bitjacker]

There was an old man who glazed donuts at my old bakery job. He often dropped donuts on the floor, and picked them back up off the nasty ass rubber kitchen floor mat. He licked his fingers quite often, too.
Pig fat is still used to make bread.
Have a wonderful day!

 

[VinsCool]

There was an old man who glazed donuts at my old bakery job. He often dropped donuts on the floor, and picked them back up off the nasty ass rubber kitchen floor mat. He licked his fingers quite often, too.
Pig fat is still used to make bread.
Have a wonderful day!

Believe me, that still wouldn't stop me eating doughnuts, as long as the rule of 10 seconds is respected.
Same for bread.

 

[DeoNaught]

T

Believe me, that still wouldn't stop me eating doughnuts, as long as the rule of 10 seconds is respected.
Same for bread.

That rule is legit, mostly if it's dry food tho, wet food doesn't work

 

[Deleted member 388531]

IT doesn't do as much work as they want you to think they do.

We mostly just make sure things don't break and once that is in place we watch cat videos all day.

Sounds like my kinda job.

 

[slaphappygamer]

There was an old man who glazed donuts at my old bakery job. He often dropped donuts on the floor, and picked them back up off the nasty ass rubber kitchen floor mat. He licked his fingers quite often, too.
Pig fat is still used to make bread.
Have a wonderful day!

Don’t most the germs get burned off from the heat? I mean, except maybe hair.

Also, I think, the 10 second rule depends on the “floor”. Dirt. No. Hardwood. Yes. Carpet. NevAr!

 

[Deleted member 388531]

one time at the store where I worked, a man was caught masturbating on the machine.

what the actual fuck
Please elaborate on the aftermath.

 

[Navonod]

I used to load tires for a well known tire company. Some of the people I worked with would pee on the tires so they wouldn't have to walk all the way to the restroom.

 

[gman666]

what the actual fuck
Please elaborate on the aftermath.

Let me first give you the rundown on the situation. It's a busy afternoon on a Friday and people are shuffling around to finish off the week. All of the sudden, we (the workers) hear a call on the overcomm, "Security to aisle 6". Now if you work at this store, you would know that there is no security on duty and the phrase, "security to isle..." is just our way of spooking any perpetrators and giving a heads up to the staff. As time passes, the staff starts receiving more and more complaints from the customers. The manager gets wind of this and she personally walks up to the guy and says, "You have to leave sir!". Mind you... The guy is still mid stroke and no shame. The guy leaves but the blood pressure machine on aisle 6 is not addressed. And the workers get their chuckles in while watching helpless seniors take their blood pressure on the tainted machine of aisle 6.

If you think this is bad... I have stories for days... Like that one time, I forced the manager to clean up a literal trail of shit down 5 whole aisles... Or that other time where a drunk customer pissed in the mop bucket and no one bothered to tell the late shift cleaning lady...