Share Surprising Secrets about your Industry!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Another thing I just remembered about the restaurant I worked at…

If you had leftovers either the busses or waitresses would bring them in the kitchen. Sometimes in a hurry your food might fall off your plate as it is put out for the dishwasher. I’ve seen the waitresses pick out food from the trash that they were suppossed to put in to-go containers (but forgot before the dishwasher dumped it). Ewww

Your leftovers were sometimes eaten by the waitresses also… like the “blooming onions”. They’d scavenge the untouched portions of your meal.

82

Crusoe, I’m sorry. For some reason I missed your post yesterday. Yes, I find that Anthony Bourdain’s recomendations are pretty accurate, especially about the fish.

83

Well, what they lack in their zip code they make up for with their new area code.

84

This is BAD advice in Colorado. My Bro-in-law is currently being driven around by a hired driver because he refused the roadside test. Based on his medication and the condition of his feet (nasty allergic reaction), he didn’t think he could pass. he said ‘Well if you’re gonna take me downtown and test me there, I’ll just wait.’

In Colorado that’s a mandatory one year suspended license.

Better just get a Designated Driver instead.

85

sniglet99, same thing in Massachusetts. You refuse to take a sobriety or breathalyzer test, that’s great - minimum 90 day suspension of license.

Zsofia, you work at Suncoast as well? Small world. Which reminds me that I should have called my store today to get scheduled for this week :smack:.

Anyway, let me see if I can remember any secrets.

First, anyone care to guess which sections are most vulnerable to “shrink” (shoplifting)? That’s right, the anime and the porn. Anime because of high prices, porn because people are apparently too ashamed to buy it straight up. That leads me to another secret: as clerks, we really don’t care that much about your taste. If you happen to be getting a movie that I’ve seen and liked, or one I’m curious about, I might ask, but generally I don’t care. This holds especially true with the porn purchases. I really don’t care.

Most of the DVDs we sell are in hard plastic security cases. Every single one of those movies was cased by the employees. All the price stickers were put there by us as well. As kind of an interesting note on the cases, many of them are very well-traveled. If we have too many cases, we just ship a bunch of them off to another Suncoast store. Other stores ship their extra cases to us as well.

I’m walking around carrying this DVD Doctor and trying to sell it to you because IT’S MY JOB. DVD Doctors, lens cleaners, storage, toys, etc are known as Profit. The reason is obvious - they have far higher profit margins than the movies we sell. We make a lot more money on each profit item than on each DVD or video tape. We are given profit goals on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. I’m trying to sell you this thing because my manager said so, not because I enjoy it.

Also, I can’t do anything about store policy. My manager can’t do anything about store policy. Sorry, c’est la vie. You MIGHT be able to get help if you directly ask my manager, but I’m not going to bother to go find her for you; I’ve got people to ring up here!

If you see me stocking shelves or going through and casing sections, PLEASE ask me to help you out. Much as I hate asking every single person that wanders into the store if they need help, I hate the dreary monotony of stocking even more. Unless I’m talking with a fellow employee as I work, in which case please leave me alone. :stuck_out_tongue:

Not an industry secret, but if you want something during the Christmas season, chances are that we don’t have it.

Last but not least, do not go into any store and ask about Scarface. We don’t have it. No one has it. End of story.

86

OK, some little known secrets from an internist.
I have an entire closet full of sample medications. If you are not greedy I can help you out. If you are on a fixed income I may try to supply every other month to cut your costs in half. I will not do this if your insurance pays for your medication. I am trying to save a social security pensioner $100 a month-you can pay the $10 copay. Those samples, however, are for the newest, most expensive medications-if I tell you something is just as good but cheaper then trust me.

You are not my only patient. I return nonemergency calls when I can. Tell me when you are at work, when you will be home and give a reasonable time to call (ie 10-12 at work or 6-9 at home) and I will call then. Tell me to call at 9:45 on your cellphone and you may not be reached (and if I do call at 9:45 and the cellphone is off then you go to the end of the list).

Treating the staff badly does not guarantee good service. My nurse can “find” extra appointments for those that she likes. My next appointment for a physical is in 3 months. Treat people nice and you will be the one we call when somebody cancels next week.

Don’t ask me to do anything illegal. I can’t change a diagnosis so that your insurance will cover it. If I think a test is necessary then I will find an appropriate diagnosis code so it will be covered (I know lots of tricks). If you demand the test because you saw it on TV even though I say it is not necessary then I may order it but you may have to pay.

87

I work in the fx industry. These tips are more applicable to newbies “just starting out”…

Tip One. (getting a job - this may apply to other jobs besides mine.)
All my jobs interviews (as a prospective employee), and my good relations with employers, have been fostered by the simple expedient of having a packet/jar of “unusual sweets” in my pocket, or on my desk.
“Jelly Belly” jelly beans (with the 40 or so different flavours) have been the secret to my success for years.

Why did it work?
Well, for a start, they remembered who I was.

Tip Two: Getting Help to “realise your dreams”
Personal ambitions - don’t keep talking about how you’re “gonna do this, gonna do that”, unless you’ve got good solid evidence that you’re already doing it. (i.e. Full storyboards, half completed projects, etc.) People who change their mind often, or are “all talk”, will make others switch off.
But if you’re doing a project seriously, and you need help - even if you are a student, or a person doing it on their own free time, sometimes a professional will help you out. The more dedicated and realistic you are in your approach, the more helpful industry folks are willing to be.

Tip Three. (For those new in the job)

When working with actors/directors, don’t hassle them, don’t try and photograph them without their permission. Be professional - but with a smile. You don’t need to flatter 'em, or be “clever”, “witty” etc. - just be yourself!

Be nice to production crew.
All of the production crew.
If you are one step up the ladder, don’t throw your weight around. If you are two steps up the ladder… don’t throw your weight around… etc.
Why? Because you’ll work with these people again at some stage - most likely - and some may even end up being your future employer, even if right now they’re on the bottom rung.

I was an onset photographer for part of my job, and often I needed the help of the lighting tech’s, make-up folk, etc.
Surly when overly pestered - and occasionally you will get “prima donnas” (male and female!), just go with it as best you can - don’t give 'em lip!!

Food once again, is a great way for ensuring well oiled wheels.
I brought the lighting crew a large pack of beers for the end of the day. I was appreciative of their help, and they were appreciative that I was appreciative.
It was always easy to do onset work thereafter.
Not that you have to buy things all the time, but every so often, an unexpected treat works wonders.

(Bosses, take heed! Treat your staff to a meal, or a staff outing (like paintball, or go-karts, or a movie), without expecting praise for your actions, and join them in the fun!
You might not notice much at first, but guaranteed your stock will improve with the workers!)
People like thoughtful people. Why is that often so hard for to understand?!
:wink:

Tip Three: Badmouthing the studios of others is not good for your own credibility. Unless you have had first hand experience with a nasty individual, don’t badmouth people in your industry.
And if you are given a contract with a confidentiality agreement, then keep things confidential. It’s your honour!
:slight_smile:

88

I don’t have much working experience, being seventeen years old and a major slacker, but I can provide a few insights in one area.

I have volunteered as a phone caller on several political campaigns. I don’t know if my observations hold true everywhere, but from my own time as a campaign kid:

  1. Few people do this voluntarily. It’s always for class credit, or because they’re paid campaign workers. That’s why you’re talking to high school kids about who you’re voting for.

  2. You may be ask to be taken off a telemarketer’s list, and maybe it means something. But I can assure you that the people calling for political campaigns, in Los Angeles at any rate, don’t have time to be organized. They’re working from fifth-generation copies of lists of registered voters, and even if they write “DO NOT CALL AGAIN–MEAN AND PROFANE!!!” with pictures of devils and flames next to your name, odds are nobody will notice, and you’re on a dozen other lists. The calls will end when the campaigns end, and probably no sooner.

  3. Just tell us you’re voting for the candidate we’re pushing. It’s very gratifying to be able to circle a “Y” on the sheet instead of a “U” (for “yes” and “undecided,” respectively, of course), and it isn’t perjury. Campaign workers are not taking official polls that are used for anything except internal statistics, AFAIK.

  4. As myriad people have said, be nice. The volunteers can’t actually give you anything, but they’re really, really miserable, and a kind word means a lot.

Oh! Also, as a former Girl Scout cookie salesperson, I can assure you that none of them like selling cookies, and they’re only there because their troop made them do it. There is no way to avoid them and not have them hate you. For God’s sake, don’t apologize to them for not buying their cookies. They don’t want to hear it. They want you to feel guilty, because they’ve been standing around for hours, in front of a store, hating you.

If you’ve got funds to spare and want to make them really, really happy, make a donation rather than buying cookies, because they get to keep all the money, and they only get a few cents or so from every box of cookies they sell. Don’t compliment them on their uniforms, and don’t tell them they look cute, unless you’re a hot guy in his twenties, in which case they’ll be discussing you for weeks, no matter their ages.

89

I work in customer support for a massively multiplayer online game. The shorthand, more importantly, is “I work in computer games.” This leads people to make all sorts of assumptions.

We do not, in fact, spend all of our time playing the game. Most of it is grunt work, wading through e-mails and petitions.

Nope, we’re not god-like figures, granting you wishes by magically solving your in-game problems and deserving worship for our efforts. We’re a bunch of guys in our twenties and early thirties. We have scraggly little beards and empty Coke cans littering our workspaces, fer chrissakes.

No, I can not give you any game item you want because you fed me a lot of smiley faces and tried to get in good. It’s my job on the line.

If you write more than one line in your e-mail and actually take the time to explain your problem in a little bit of detail, we won’t have to send you a reply that simply states “In order to solve your problem we’ll need a little bit more information, yadda yadda yadda,” thus increasing the overall workload and annoying the hell out of us.

If you’re really annoying or boneheaded or if you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, you will get passed around between the customer support staff, and they will laugh snidely at you, oh yes they will. If you have something nice to say, however, it is almost always duly noted and if someone remembers you next time, you are actually likely to get better service.

Sometimes, just sometimes, it really, really isn’t our problem. Your computer is busted, poncho. Get it fixed.

90

Why is that? I remember the Scarface DVD being at my local blockbuster, but some knave absconded with it, so I spent a good week scouring the stores for it to no avail.

91

I’m a manager-cum-project worker in a centre for the homeless:

  1. Chaotic homeless people are the funniest, warmest, politest and most respectful bunch of people you could ever hope to meet. They are informal, sensitive, open and easy to get to know. I worked in customer service for years and came up against more physical and verbal abuse every week than I have my entire time in this sector.

  2. At least in the city where I live, 100% of street beggars are begging for drugs money. I can say this with ease because I know all of them. However, many street beggars say that begging provides them with the money that burglary/mugging would do otherwise, so giving out a little cash might well save your windows being smashed and your TV stolen. Think of it as home insurance.

  3. Junkies need their drugs and they get terribly ill without them. It’s no longer a matter of choice and a strung out junkie is a mightily peeved junkie who will do whatever it takes to get sorted out. A recently dosed junkie is a warm, sleepy, droolly junkie and no harm to a soul (except maybe themselves should they fall face down in their soup). New theory in this country suggests that it might be a good idea to prescribe Heroin as medication to long-term users in order to stabilise them to the extent at which they could make the best use of drugs counselling services/rehab etc. I think it’s a marvellous idea, as do the majority of the drugs workers I’ve worked with.

  4. People who volunteer at homeless projects usually have a great time. For a couple of hours of your time you can feel like you’ve done some good, have a laugh, talk to some lovely people who have have interesting lives and experiences, and perhaps even learn something about yourself and why you lead the life that you do.

  5. Crack hoes are generally very nice ladies with a strong work ethic and bad taste in boyfriends.

92

I have something to add about the breathalizer tests. I live in MA where you do lose your license for 90 days for refusing a test.

However, the small hand-held breathalizer testers are not the same as the larger ones at the police station. They do not carry a 90 day loss of license penalty for being refused. In fact, even if you fail that small one, they will then bring you to the station to take the more reliable test.

93

You may kiss my feet*. I have a file on a couple of computers which is my medical data. I list my meds, doses, allergies, and my conditions (diabetic, congestive heart failure), and that I have had a hysterectomy (so no, I CANNOT be pregnant). I have impressed upon my husband and daughter that they need to print out this file before taking me to the ER. I print out the file before heading to the doctor, if I’ve changed anything. And I update this file like my life depends on it, because it just MIGHT.

*But I’d really rather have you take a look at those calluses. Can you do anything for them?

94

Well…

For those in or wanting to attend college/university/institutes of higher learning:

Be polite, and keep extra copies of anything written. Also get to know at least someone in your major’s department, be it professor or staff member. We can, if we know who you are, get a lot of things taken care of for you, or at least give you a reprieve or directions on the best way to get things cleared up. For those facing Academic Probation, we can even get you a one-time shot at improving your GPA, if we know you and you are sincere about wanting to pull yourself back together.

For GA/TA/RA’s (Graduate, Teacher, Research Assitantships): treat applying for them like you would any other job. A follow up is nice, but spamming the entire department with your lifestory (and/or begging for an assistantship) will just make us stall for time until all the money is awarded, or flat out tell you we don’t have anything that would fit your needs. Being professional will probably net you a job extremely quickly, if we have any openings, or will put you on the top of our ‘waiting’ list for when something does open up.

Most professors are willing to bend things a bit for students who show up for all class meetings, pay attention, and ask for help. We may not be able to improve that ‘C’ to a ‘B’, or do much for someone who is really out of their league, but we may be able to eke out a ‘+’, ‘-’, or ‘IP’ (depending on what helps more) for you by awarding points based on effort.

Problem students will be dealt with as little as possible, and in such a way as to screw you over as much as we can without landing in legal hot water. If you are 1 point away from that higher grade, then we’re not going to give you it.
We will stall for as long as possible on anything that needs to be done for you. Reccomendation letters will be of the generic bland variety, possibly with backhanded compliements. We will do the bare minimum possible.

Not really shocking, but it’s suprising how many people don’t know…

<< Foooooooooo. >>

95

I worked in the bakery at one of those large chain supermarkets and was disappointed in the number of things we didnt bake.

All the cake came in frozen and was thawed and decorated.

All the cheesecakes and eclairs and boston creme pies and those “mocha cakes” and “oreo cakes” creme horns … all frozen and already in the packaging ready to “whack a label”

Brownies were in a big box ready to thaw and box.

Cookies came as frozen “slugs” to be put on the tray and baked. Never buy unpopular cookies. If it isnt chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin … odds are the frozen dough has been thawed and refrozen a couple times!

Just because one package of bread says one date and another one has the next odds are they were baked together and the other one just got labelled the next day.

Garlic bread is stale italian bread slit open filled with that buttery goo and given new packaging.

As the cake decorator it amazes me how rude people can be. I also learned no good deed goes unpunished. When people come in with a sob story that they somehow forgot they were having 50 people over that day for cake they never ordered odds are they are SOL! But a few times if I was ahead of schedule and tried to help these people out they would almost unfailingly start adding all kinds of complex requests and they wanted it in ten minutes!

If you really want something specific find a way to talk to the person doing the work. Odds are the kid you get working the night shift has no idea how/if something can be done. I always loved spending the first hour of my day calling customers to tell them the cake they ordered the day before is not doable.

Also true red icing is pretty to see and a horror to make/eat. So much dye is required that often the frosting tastes nasty and it will always stain the person’s mouth. It can also thin the frosting so flowers will wilt faster. If the cake decorator tries to modify your color scheme truly listen and give it some thought!

Cake decorating is a thankless task and I have the carpal tunnel to prove it.

96

I worked in the temporary personnel placement industry for ten years and there is not a more soul-less industry out there, IMHO. First of all, what many don’t realize is that the agency’s focus is not to find jobs for its applicants but to find workers for its client companies. And that’s fine, but there are many who expect that temp agencies are like social service organizations and that is NOT true. Also, temp agencies make a profit on your work and there is generally no formula for how much they can make. The idea is to make as high a mark up as you can get away with (oh and there is a certain percentage they have to mark up to break even). Sometimes they quote the price to the company first, sometimes they quote the pay rate to the temp first, but they have to try and make the most out of it that they can. I have made over 100% mark up on some assignments. If you are a temp on a long term assignment and you want a raise, the agency then usually raises the client’s price. If they refuse your raise it’s because they couldn’t or wouldn’t renegotiate the price the company is paying for you.

If you are given an assignment and then the agency tells you it’s cancelled, usually it’s because they’ve changed their minds about using you, not because the assignment was cancelled.

Catering to your need for flexible scheduling doesn’t mean they don’t mind when you call in. They hate that and they will hold it against you.

Many temp agencies will allow their established client companies to make discriminatory requests such as “no blacks.”

There’s more, but I can’t think of it now.

97

If you buy plants or flowers from a florist, don’t let your kids or pets around them. Most have been sprayed with some very powerful insecticides - wash your hands after touching any of them. They have probably been fertilized heavily too - the soil in potted plants can be toxic.

Buy your plants in bud (if you can, we usually didn’t send them out to sell unless they are in heavy bloom), not blooming. Blooming looks better, but the poor plant has been fertilized to death, and will probably never looks as good as how it’s looking when you buy it. Unless you have greenhouse facilities, most blooming houseplants will never look that good either. When my friends or family get a blooming houseplant, I usually recommend tossing it after blooming, it takes a lot of babying to get those things looking as good as the greenhouse makes them look.

98

Nightsong prompted me.

If you are a student, honesty will get you everywhere. If you need more time on a paper, a professor would rather hear you say “I messed up. I really should have gotten started on this earlier, and I didn’t” than “My roommate’s boyfriend broke up with her and she took my car with all my books in it so I couldn’t work on the paper.”

If you are not going to pay 100% attention in class because you’ve got a good grasp on the material, that’s probably okay. As long as you don’t distract anyone else or be overly rude. If, however, you start having trouble with the course, by god you’d better start paying attention.

And here’s an industry secret that would shock George W.: No, we do not have racial quotas here.

99

Another person on about library (circ) work:

Be nice to the people serving you. Like Antares said, we can’t totally delete your fine, but you will get better circ treatment.

Additionally, there are several ways to get out of library fines that have nothing to do with being nice. Dropping off the book at the wrong library will often result in the book being checked in as “exempt”–in other words, no fines at all. Additionally, you can lie.

The thing about lying, however, is that we do try to verify your story. The most common lie is that the person returned the book–we just didn’t check it in. Then we go check our shelves.

If the book is there, we apologize, check it in exempt, and let you go on your merry way. If there are several books found–all, incidentally, miraculously in their proper places, we get suspicious, but we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe someone misplaced a pile of books or something.

If the book is not there–well, there’s nothing we can do. We can keep an eye out for it, and track it in our computer system, but we can’t just take it off your card. The odds of a book A.) not being checked in, B.) not being correctly shelved, and C.) not being brought to be checked out again are vanishingly small. We will check the bins for you–sometimes books slip inside the cracks–but we are NOT going to go through every shelf, because have a line. If there are three or more books that are not there, you are a damned liar, and, depending upon who’s helping you, you may or may not be told this. Woe be to the person who decided to lie to me and get hostile my last day working there.

Being a jerk does not help. Demanding to speak to the head of the library at 8pm is not a sure thing–he leaves at five. Oh, you know his name? Guess what, lady–so do I, and I know him well enough to know when he gets off work. Besides, he has nothing to do with the check in and check out of books. You can talk to the head of Circ. Yes, she’s a woman. She’s the one in charge.

Finally, we don’t care if you ever come to the library again. You’re not paying us to check out books. We’ve got far more business than we want or need. Now, this doesn’t mean we’re not polite–if you’re kind to us, we will return the favor. However, if you’re a jerk, and you say, “I’m never coming here again,” we’re not going to bend over backwards to serve you. We are going to–politely–say something to the effect of “don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.” Yes, even the 74 year old woman working the Circ desk will do this. Plus, she’s a hair-puller. :).

100

Most of the tips you enemerate is euphimistic theft. Being the owner of a tap room, I expect my barstaff to be “silent partners,” but with limits. You wanna buy back regulars & good tippers after 2 (as opposed to 3), I say, “fine, they pay the bills.” “You want to the house to pick-up the 1st drink for that guy who always comes in for two and never sticks around for a freebie?” No problem.

Fortunately, up in my neck of the woods (metro NY), no one tips after each drink or round (with the exception of multi-staffed clubs), they tip when they leave. If I or the staff saw someone who was obviously out more more than one & tried to slip in an initial 10-spot, they’d be politely informed they can tip when they leave and treated as someone who tries to pay-off the check-out clerk at the supermarket to slip the filet mignon past the scanner without a beep.