People have been sharing the behind the scenes secrets of their profession – 17 eye-opening insights from the coalface

In the world of work, appearances can be everything. So long as the front of house looks good then everyone’s happy.

As we all know though, appearances can be deceiving. Seemingly smooth-running operations usually rely on behind-the-scenes chaos, which prompted Redditor PiNK_PUSSY69420 to find out more by asking:

‘People who work in ‘behind-the-scenes’ jobs (hotels, airports, warehouses, etc.), what is something the general public would be shocked to know?’

Here are the top replies from people with first-hand experience…

1.
‘Worked at a grocery warehouse for a few years. You guys should uhh…wash your food before eating it. And your hands after removing it from the packaging.’
-Jimmy_Skynet_EvE

2.
‘I work behind the scenes at several concert venues.

‘So much of what is on stage is choreographed down to the stage patter. There are unseen musicians adding to the sound in a lot of cases. A lot of the “classic rock” performers can barely move much less actually perform. What you think you are seeing and hearing on stage isn’t always so.’
-netnut58

3.
‘For hotels, the comforters are rarely washed, usually just lint rolled. Make sure you are using the sheets.’
-Lil_Lamia

‘A friend of mine who worked at a hotel told me they don’t call them comforters. They’re referred to as “cum-catchers”.’
Casual_Lothario

4.

‘How often things still work because people care, not because the system does.’
gamersecret2

5.
‘Death industry. Hearses typically don’t pick dead people up from homes, hospitals and other places of death – minivans do.’
-bloodyangel00

6.
‘I work at a (humbly) well know public garden and I think people would be shocked at the amount of plants we buy in, display for a few months (sometimes weeks), and then compost every year. It’s something north of 10,000 cubic yards of plant material.’
-Tolosino

7.
‘I did pest control for 26 years in the United States and a few as a sanitarian for the American Institute of Baking ( now a defunct position.)

‘The dirtiest food we eat is spices. The tolerance for bacteria, insect parts and just general dirt is much higher in spices than food in general.

‘The inspectors told me the greater tolerance was due to the fact that we eat a significantly smaller volume of spices than general foodstuffs.’
-RusticSurgery

8.
‘I worked at a warehouse loading trucks for a while. I think the general public would be fairly appalled at how their packages are treated.

‘But you get so desensitized to even viewing the boxes as other peoples things. It is an unrelenting never ending flow of packages. We had to load 1 box every 7 seconds to stay on target.

‘The conveyor belts back up and I’ve seen boxes get obliterated. You’ll have small bubble wrap packages on the same belt as a box of tiles, there’s only so much you can do, shit happens.

‘You better pack your boxes well, because those things are being manhandled, tossed, anything just to make the quota and get outta there asap’
-vaccumshoes

9.
‘Maybe a little different, but the big joke in public health is-

“When it is working well no one knows what you’re doing”

‘So, it has been disheartening to see multiple vaccine preventable disease outbreaks, food/water-borne illness outbreaks, crumbling trust in public health recommendations….

‘Generally, we take lower pay than what we could get in industry because we believe in the mission to improve the health and lives of others, despite what some in the government might lead you to believe.’
-Mark_of_Nayru