What's an insider secret about somewhere you used to work?

Food bank in the US. Food drives and individual donations of food don't really mean shit to food banks and they result in overwhelmingly low quality food. Your local food bank isn't hurting for your expired cans of coconut milk or your forgotten boxes of Kraft mac & cheese. Sugary junk and expired food will be sorted out and tossed. Most staple foods at food banks are distributed by the federal government or purchased by the food bank. Most other foods are donated in large volume by supermarkets and manufacturers. What food banks really need from you is donations of money, not food.
Another thing about food banks is that some supermarkets and manufacturers abuse them to dump their spoiled, expired or overproduced goods and get a tax write-off on them. I worked at a medium sized food bank that would throw away multiple pallets of sugary bakery items from Walmart every day because they didn't meet our nutrition guidelines and Walmart had been told repeatedly not to donate them, but they did it anyway for the tax write-off. Ever walk into a Walmart and wonder how they can have so much bakery crap on display and sell it before it expires? Yeah, most of that stuff will be marked down multiple times and then trucked to the local food bank where it will be thrown away. Trader Joe's also does this with their returns (most of their donations are unusable). Whole Foods on the other hand is really amazing about donating tons of high quality stuff on a daily basis.

The last tech job I worked marketing for had a security product (you probably have used it without knowing it). They had a group in-house they called the "Tiger Team": people who were supposedly tasked with testing the security of the product. You got into the "Tiger Team" by finding a flaw in the security.
The "Tiger Team" did nothing. At all. Didn't even meet. Hell, half of them didn't know who the other members were. The job of the "Tiger Team" was to sign the NDA that had dire consequences if you spoke to anybody else about the "Tiger Team" and/or the security flaws in the product.
So basically the "Tiger Team" existed only to conceal flaws in the product. Not to fix them or find more.

They patent ways to generate green energy so nobody else can use them and they can continue to make obscene profits selling oil and gas.
- I'm not surprised but lord that's bad

Automation is so incredibly resource intensive and generates so much waste. I can't see how letting ourselves become more dependant on automation is as beneficial as businesses and mislead common people make it out to be.
As demand increases, so does maintenance, upgrades and power consumption. Everything electronic requires plastic. Which is shipped in more plastic. Which is shipped on skids wrapped in more plastic. And when those electronics fail, then that is just more waste plastic because it's easier, quicker and cheaper to replace rather than fix.
Electronics and automation are so fun and interesting. It's amazing watching a line run at full speed in production. But it's so painfully depressing how awful it is for our environment. The dust and oils are awful for the living beings that work in those environments. The repetitive jobs that it creates is absolutely awful for the mental wellbeing for the people who work there.
The mental damage of being there was so bad to me that when it came time to discuss severance pay at the labour board meeting after my wrongful termination, I purposely let the lawyers keep in a part in the contract/paperwork saying I could no longer work at any company under that international organization. They thought I would fight that so they would have reason to lower my severance pay. Nah. I took my winnings, which included getting the HR manager fired, and fucked right off.
Years later and I still feel a deep shame and regret for the time I spent in the automation industry and for all the damage and waste I caused while being in there.
Along with eliminating wealth hoarders who generate extreme amounts of waste, lessening our dependence on technology and automation are things I personally believe will be key to a liveable future. It's a bit shocking to me how often I receive negative or angry criticism when I share these thoughts though.
- The Factory Must Grow......
  /s
- It’s a bit shocking to me how often I receive negative or angry criticism when I share these thoughts though.
  You receive criticism because you are wrong. Automation is just using technology to make things with less effort. I'm very happy letting a machine weave my clothes, rather than having to sit down and twist the threads to weave my clothes with my fingers. Eschewing automation wouldn't just result in less environmental waste - it would send us back to the dark ages, except worse, because we could not possibly feed and clothes the world's population without automated systems. Humans, desperate for food and shelter, would constantly be at war with each other and would chop down every forest and slaughter every animal in a desperate attempt at survival.
  Meanwhile, there is no reason it must be awful for the environment or people. If single use plastics are a problem because they are cheaper than the alternative, then the solution is obvious: make plastics more expensive. This is called a Pigouvian Tax, and it is very effective. Any time we notice something which has a negative impact on the world, but which has no negative impact for its user, we just tax it until its use has been decreased to an acceptable level.
  Dust and oils in a work environment are solveable by wearing PPE.
  The unpleasantness of a job is solveable by making life affordable for workers so they can just quit if they don't like it.
  These are all solveable problems, and I see no need to make the whole world way shittier to solve them.
  
  I've spent time over the years wondering why I receive hostile or angry criticism. A few ideas float to my mind. Judging by the responses I do receive, many seem to be uncomfortable giving up any current personal comfort in order to address deeper questions about health, safety, how we work with the environment around us and who actually benefits from our current technology.
  I've made no attempts to suggest solutions. The automation industry is far too complex for me to even try. The covid lockdowns showed me just how vulnerable the automation industry is to disruptions. Something that's vulnerable to disruptions should be questioned. Especially when so many lives are dependent on it.
  Those deeper questions may just lead us in a completely different direction. That is nothing to fear. In the process of that, we may just find a comfort zone between technology, nature and human creativity where it can all exist with minimal pain for us and everything around us.
  Decreasing our dependence on technology will allow us, the ones who do not hoard wealth as a means of power over other people, to gain control and independence in our personal lives and our immediate communities. When we can be independent, we can become more resistent to disruptions in our communities.
  All this requires us to be open, honest and to have the the will to attempt change. From my personal experiences and perspective, doing more of the same only enables to current situation.

Shell has caused a lot more oil spills, both big and small, than they'd ever admit. I didn't work there, but I've been on ships around their oil rigs.

I feel like this should be common sense, but goddamn does it come up often as fuck. If you're going to a built-in bakery, like in a grocery store or Starbucks little bakery display, we don't fully make 90% of that shit. It comes in pre-made. The shit we do put in the oven is mostly to warm it or just finish it off.
We most likely don't even have the box to tell you exactly when the supplier baked it. We sell them that quickly. We just slap icing on.
We have to put out so much product in a day, on such tight timing, that if we had to mix and bake our own cakes and bread, we'd be constantly out. That is part of why our shit is cheaper than a high-end independent establishment.

The physical infrastructure of the internet (fibre and copper cables) is held together with string and 'temporary' fixes. Not a metaphor in any way.
- Wait 'til you hear about the software infrastructure.

80-90% of the entire cybersecurity business is because Windows is still being used.
- But 80-90% of successful cyber attacks succeed because someone does something dumb, like give out their password to the pizza delivery guy.

No one really cares if you have a nice day.
- 😱😱😱

Many SQL servers use scripts that run as domain administrator. With the password hard coded in.
Several of the various servers are very old. W2K, 2003, 2008. SQL server, too.
Several of the users run reports via rdp to the SQL server - logging in as domain admin.
Codebase is a mashup of various dev tools: .net, asp, Java, etc.
Fax server software vendor has been out of business for a decade. Server hardware is 20 years old. Telecom for fax is a channelized PRI carrying POTS - and multiport modem cards. Fax is used for processing checks.
About a 3rd of the ethernet runs in the office have failed.
Office pcs are static IP. Boss says that's more secure.
They were hacked about a year ago. They changed the domain admin password and restored the backups. That's it.
They processed money to/from the Fed.
- The thing limiting it most is the last sentence, the rest I've seen as well :D

We used to routinely disable safety interlocks on production machines. A guy almost got decapitated once while performing maintenance.
- What? Why? It only takes one guy to refuse.
  
  Not the original post, but it’s usually speed. Manufacturing employees get pushed for more output, and usually that means that maintenance gets rushed.
  A decade ago I was working somewhere with massive production machines with big rollers to pull the product through. One guy left the machine running to clean it so he could just sort of buff the rollers to clean them instead of scrubbing.
  He got his arm sucked in up to his shoulder before someone was able to hit the e-stop
  
  Sometimes for maintenance, sometimes because manual intervention was necessary. The machines where we did this were built in the 90s and have been in near constant operation. Moving parts are worn out and the tolerances are gone. Replacement parts are difficult to find and expensive to manufacture, so if something more complex than a ball bearing or axle got out of alignment, we had to pound it back into place (sometimes literally).
  I personally never bypassed the interlock, I wasn't paid enough to take on that responsibility. I would just file a downtime notice and call the on-site mechanic when needed. I didn't give a shit about reduced output.
  Tagging @Remorhaz@lemmy.world

I've worked for the government. However chaotic, beaurocratic and badly managed it is, it's 1000 times worse. Laziness is endemic and so many people just won't work
- It is truly incredible when you see how someone can make themselves be such a roadblock. Like how are you even this way?
  How long have you been alive?
  Shocking

They paid for the CEO to have an expensive townhouse downtown even though they only visited the area like 2 weeks total per year and lived on the opposite coast.

Locally owned and operated retirement home that got new management after og owner retirement.
They changed the logo to a cross when they changed all their old company practices to a more for profit approach. All during covid when they cut everything too.
Hired on with the expectation of a 3 month raise. Lol no. First job and first lesson that if it's not in writing it doesn't exist.
One time I found molded beans in bulk storage. Was instructed to scrape off the top layer and use the rest since truck wasn't coming and we needed it.
Hardies would routinely ship molded product. Options were pick around the refuse or have nothing. Sometimes a dishwasher or line cook would go to the store with a list when it was too bad.
The actual secret? You can do a lot to food and still be ok. Honestly got me over my food pickyness. Don't fuck with the danger zone and you're good.
- If something has mold, specifically, then that whole food and anything else in the same package is bad, even if you can't see the mold on other pieces. This is because mold is a microorganism and you only see it with your eyes when an extremely large amount collects.
  
  it depends on the food. you can't really cut the mold off bread but you can definitely cut the mold off cheese.
  in a restaurant kitchen i think it should be tossed but at home some stuff can be worth saving.

YMMV:
Dollar General: nobody watches the cameras unless someone reports something
USPS: exploitative. Has the ability to manipulate politics (political ads are not guaranteed to be delivered)
Amazon Warehouse: exploitative
Amazon DSP: exploitative. DSPs were created to bypass labor laws
Restaurants: most fried foods, and many not fried, are frozen. This is not just fast food, think steaks.
- What is a DSP?
  
  Delivery Service “Partner”
  It’s the outsourced delivery drivers.

Privileged cunts get paid $300K+/year to do fuck all. But that is coming to an end, we just summarily cut one cunt’s salary in half and it’ll go lower if that cunt doesn’t actually produce. For complicated reasons, the cunt can’t be fired.

Not sure how much of a secret or how unique this is to this industry but in sign writing, they'll charge customers bloated prices that includes the cost of all materials, then use offcut and leftover materials from previous jobs anyway.
- This makes sense in 2 ways:
  If they didn't have the offcuts, they would have to buy the materials anyway. So accounting for that cost is required.
  If they didn't use the offcuts, they would have to bin/recycle them. This is a good reduce/reuse policy.
  It's similar with event kit hire companies. They might have 2 of one item on the book, and know they can subhire a further 2 items from a different company.
  If you request to hire 2 of the items, it will likely be at the cost of what the other company charges (well, b2b rate at least) plus a margin (to cover delivery, processing, insurance).
  Because the company you go to may or may not have 2 items on the shelf. They might only have 1 or none. And they can't suck up the cost of subhiring.
  If they hire out the items on the shelf, great. Probably a bit more profit.
  If they have to subhire, no big deal. Just slimmer margins

A lot of municipal and county work is pay to play. The well run counties will still fire poorly performing contractors and consultants, but it will typically require getting a foot in the door.
That doesn't work at my state's level, but that means you have to have a very good working relationship with the project managers running the various projects. I've seen some project managers make contractors do parts of their job; the contractors that do will maintain a better working relationship with their project managers.

Some of the cameras are fake.

The codebase was held together by pritt-stick