'My boss invented a fake employee that he would blame all problems on': 20+ Workplaces that hid their tricks of the trade from their customers

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 2, 2024 11:00 AM EST

Sometimes you really don't want to see how the sausage is made. You just want that final product, and you want to enjoy it without knowing all of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that it takes to create said product. 

This is certainly the case at many restaurants, just as one example. You just want to sit down in the seating area and have a nice meal. You don't want to think about how long it's been since they cleaned the grease trap, or how there are probably at least 10 cockroaches or mice scurrying around the place. You don't want to think about how the produce might not have been washed very well, or how the server touching your food might have a sniffle. All these things could easily ruin your meal, so restaurant bosses keep it far, far away from the customer's view. What the customers don't know won't hurt them, according to many supervisors out there. People from many different industries weighed in on the secrets they're keeping, which you can check out below. 

Up next, read about the hotel guest who "demanded a room upgrade because 'their aura didn't vibe' with the one they booked," plus a bunch of other eye-opening stories from hotel receptionists. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10434223616
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    What did your job want you to hide from customers?
    via u/Zytrome
  • 03
    loonygecko My old boss invented a fake employee that he would blame all mistakes on when speaking with customers. Once in a while, he would tell the customers he 'fired' that imaginary employee and then come up with a new name for a new imaginary employee that would be the new sucker.
    via u/loonygecko
  • 04
    [deleted] The cup of soup and bowl of soup were the exact same size. People would pay more for a bowl, and just get a cup of soup in a bowl that was shorter and wider at the bottom than the cup.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    [deleted] I worked at McDonald's and they taught me how to pinch the fry carton just right while putting the fries into them so that it looked full, but actually wasn't.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    I only had 1 customer call me out on it. He shook the fries out into his bag and poured them back into the fry carton himself and it only filled up half way, so I had to give him more fries. I was impressed and embarrassed. It's been 7 years and I can still see his face.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    kakejaufman Worked at a bike rent shop where we told customers we sanitized the helmets we rented via 'heat treatment'. 'Heat treatment' consisted of having some sorry a high schooler run up to the top of the building, essentially the attic of this old wooden structure, and just leave them in boxes, or, if they were wet, hung from nails to drip and dry.
    via u/kakejaufman
  • 08
    BRUNCH_DEST... I've worked for two separate escape rooms. Everyone who didnt get out "got really close". Usually we'll show you what you missed if there's only a few puzzles left. If we don't show you anything it's because we didn't want to make you feel bad.
    via u/BRUNCH_DESTROYER
  • 09
    bitcornonthecob A burrito chain that I worked at was on Undercover Boss. In the episode, the chain wouldn't let ABC show the fact that our guacamole comes from avocado paste- not fresh avocados.
    via u/bitcornonthecob
  • 10
    fantastiskandie Worked at a restaurant that also did catering. People would come in for tastings. regularly for things like weddings and we'd give them samples of some of our food. The big thing at these tastings was the cheesecake, which was made in house to be served in the restaurant and was pretty great. What we didn't tell them was that for
    via u/fantastiskandie
  • 11
    catering events, we bought premade cheesecakes instead. I think they were Marie Callender's. Basically we'd sell them on our cheesecake then give them something less good that was easier/cheaper for us.
    via u/fantastiskandie
  • 12
    Honestly, we were stretching ourselves a little thin with catering. It was always a mess trying to get all the food prepared as well as run the restaurant. We had one chef who worked every single day and the waiters doubled as caterers, sometimes working long wait and catering shifts back to back.
    via u/fantastiskandie
  • 13
    deerlingfling I work at a shoe store, and we recently got a shipment of "clearance sandals" (aka years old sandals they had shoved in some warehouse). As I was putting them out I noticed some had green stuff all over them... mold.
    via u/deerlingfling
  • 14
    We were instructed by corporate to wipe it off and sell them anyway. Luckily my manager is sane and refuses to put out the moldy shoes, but still some sketchy sh.
    via u/deerlingfling
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    V... If something you eat says. "no added (X)" this means whatever ingredient X is, it has been added instead by adding an ingredient naturally high in that in lieu of adding it in its pure form.
    via u/Vibriofischeri
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    For example if you've got something that says "No added MSG", they likely threw a bunch of yeast extract in there instead, which contains plenty of MSG.
    via u/Vibriofischeri
  • 17
    CatCairo I machine embroider shirts for different companies. If the stitching doesn't line up (such as an outline around a logo) and the colors allow for it, we have a bucket full of markers to recolor the tread, even going as far as coloring the shirt that shows through to make it look cohesive. The best ones are Sharpie or dry erase markers.
    via u/CatCairo
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    TheHeliox Worked at a nursery (plants, not babies) that sold xmas trees in winter. We had to have two employees per customer in the lot at all times. One to talk to and distract the customer, the other to hold up the particular tree they were
    via u/TheHeliox
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    interested in and shake the rats out while said customer was distracted. Basically these people were buying 50$ rat nests to put in their house.
    via u/TheHeliox
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    kateykmck I worked in the vegetable seed industry. Some varieties that were "exclusive" to certain customers were just repackaged and renamed seed of an existing variety. If something was underselling, they just changed the name, rewrote the description and claimed it was a better, sister line.
    via u/kateykmck
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    It was always funny though when customers demanded the old line because the new one "wasn't as good". We'd just shrug, change the label back to the old name and off it went...
    via u/kateykmck
  • 22
    Syliase I used to work at a really fancy restaurant as both a waitress and hostess. This restaurant was notorious for having long wait times, but really amazing food. We always encouraged people to make reservations, never directly saying it guaranteed them a spot in our restaurant.
    via u/Syliase
  • 23
    That said, if a "preferred" customer comes in, or someone makes enough of a fuss to the manager, they'll be able to cut the line and go ahead of reservations.
    via u/Syliase
  • 24
    M.. Worked for a shady computer repair company that took in "electronic recycling". He would charge. a dollar an inch to dispose of old CRT monitors and then toss them into the dumpster. This was just one of the many shady things he did.
    via u/Mypopsecrets
  • 25
    M.. I worked at an art glass store that sold glass, mostly made in China with very few actual nice pieces. We were told to peel the 'Made in China' stickers off. If anyone asked where the glass came from we would say New Jersey, which is where the supplier was from. I always felt like Danny Devito in Matilda changing the odometer on his used cars.
    via u/MsPennyApple
  • 26
    ThePopojijo Restaurant: that we would reheat sauces for several days and depending on how many times this had happened they would look and taste completely different. I told my friends. and family to not eat there as there was plenty of sketchy sh going on there.
    via u/ThePopojijo
  • 27
    messymuskrat I worked at an oil change place and the pit crew would regularly "forget" to tell us that we were out of synthetic oil. We would up- charge people for a product they didn't even get. Also, you didn't need a new air filter. We just needed a $72 average per car, but a base oil change was only $20.
    via u/messymuskrat
  • 28
    sharpshooter123 I'm a home inspector and the realtors that refer me work don't want me to point as many things out that are wrong with the house. I always do my job but many agents don't use me as a result.
    via u/sharpshooter123
  • 29
    r….. marking sh up so we can put it on 'sale' Edit: I work at a small, family-owned specialty store. I know a lot of bigger businesses have been caught doing this, but my boss really has to in order to compete with them and their prices.
    via u/rroses-
  • 30
    [deleted] In fast food, drive thru comes first because they're the majority of customers. If you come in you'll get your food between us serving drive thru.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    A... The Cheesecakes are not 'frozen'. They are 'deeply chilled' which from what I have gathered is an industry term roughly equating to Frozen AF. Plus a bunch of other stuff.
    via u/ARealBillsFan
  • 32
    Fabri-cobbler I worked at a high end resort, like $2000/person a night at the time, they billed themselves as eco, but did things that definitely weren't. Probably the most enjoyable were the slop dumping runs, where we would go and dump kitchen scraps in the ocean. The idea was to not have bears get into it, so we'd freeze it in 5 gallon buckets and go
    via u/Fabri-cobbler
  • 33
    dump it in the ocean. We used the same spot, and had a crab trap set up there, because this stuff attracted crabs like crazy. We were instructed to not dump slop on guest arrival days though, since there was a bit of a slick formed (who knew rich people food was so fatty?). Anyway, one day we forgot and dumped a load on an arrivals day, when one
    via u/Fabri-cobbler
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    of the guests commented on the slick, I blamed the fish farms nearby. They have since changed their ways, and run a pretty good show now, but back in the day, we were eco in front redneck in the back.
    via u/Fabri-cobbler
  • 35
    H... I work at a movie theater. People are always trying to sneak food in. In our employee handbooks it actually says people can bring food in as long as it doesn't smell bad. It's funny to see customers nervously hide their bags so we don't see it.
    via u/Hail_storm4
  • 36
    totally_boring We don't wash the blankets every day. Your AC probably has mildew/mold in it unless you have a full size ac in it. Also we don't vacuum your floor very well. And not everything at break is fresh cooked.
    via u/totally_boring
  • 37
    PunningLynguist Daily deal company: The fact that the third-party Android tablets we were selling on our site for Christmas...weren't even in production yet. We were basically just taking their money for that product. There were parents who were super excited to find a "great" deal for their kid during the holiday rush
    via u/PunningLynguist
  • 38
    and I felt like sh having to sell it to them (I was working customer service and they were usually calling to see how legit the product was). I left soon afterwards (is it hard to see why?), so I wasn't able to see the full consequence of that deal
    via u/PunningLynguist
  • 39
    [deleted] Besides hiding how much we're marking up equipment, those of us in the field have to actively hide all of the f ups that happened back in the office. "Oh, it's on backorder, it will be in next week!" means, "That a hole Bob forgot to order it," or, "We're actually on credit hold with that company because our
    via u/[deleted]
  • 40
    customers don't pay us fast enough." "Yeah, there was a lot of traffic today!" means, "That a hole Steve gave us the wrong address and failed to mention the lack of a loading dock."
    via u/[deleted]
  • 41
    McRibSucks How many spiders are in hotels. I worked front desk but would help out matinence if needed. One day we pulled and cleaned all the ac units and my job was to take a shop vac and suck up spiders in the ac hole in the wall. I'm talking thousands and thousands. shudders
    via u/McRibSucks
  • 42
    louierosner Half of the food I prep for orders consists of repackaging pre prepared food into our own package and slapping a higher price in it
    via u/louierosner
  • 43
    N... I was a server at my first restaurant a few years ago. You got sh for calling in sick, even if you were legit sick. if you were sick, they would tell you to go to the bathroom and do whats needed, but get back to work asap. If you went to the bathroom too often, sneezed, coughed, or did anything sick people do in front of customers, you got
    via u/N*quilisdelicious
  • 44
    scolded. Everyone hated that manager. I tried calling in one time because I was struggling to survive. I was puking and every 30 minutes. They were so p ed off because no one could cover my shift and said if I went home I would regret it. When I started work, I looked and felt like death. The first table I went to was a party, this lady said "you don't look
    via u/N*quilisdelicious
  • 45
    good, you need to go home" and when I responded with "i'm ok. no one can cover my shift and I need this job" she got up and told me to follow her. As we were walking, she asked why I felt like I was going to get in trouble. She flipped her sh when I told her and walked straight to the manager like she was on a mission and said "I am a director of human
    via u/N*quilisdelicious
  • 46
    resources at herpaderp. I can't believe you would let him work like this and then threaten him when he wanted to go home sick. I am going to contact corporate tomorrow for treating your staff in such an inhumane way and for putting your customers health at risk." When he tried to respond, he was bombarded so hard by this red hot ball of fiery bostonian rage, I started
    via u/N*quilisdelicious
  • 47
    having Vietnam flashbacks. It was so brutal, I actually felt bad for him. She told me to go home immediately (she even offered to buy me an uber home) and promised me there would be no repercussions in any way shape or form. I'm 6'0 and at the time was pretty big, but I was honestly so terrified of this 5 foot nothing woman, I said "yes mam" and walked right out
    via u/N*quilisdelicious
  • 48
    the door without clocking out. This was in front of staff and customers. The silence was palpable and I was in the limelight. I could feel the eyes staring me down as I walked away, nearly my pants from fear and my stomach hurting. I showed up to work a few days later and felt like a rockstar because my co- workers had the biggest sh
    via u/N*quilisdelicious
  • 49
    eating grins on their faces giving me a thumbs up. As I was walking to the back to clock in, I was stopped by this professional as f lady in a nice woman suit. She sat me down and explained that she was from HR. Basically, I was told to never fear for my employment if I needed to call in sick again and to take one more PAID day off to fully recover. I was like "f yeah".
    via u/N*quilisdelicious
  • 50
    While I was walking out a co-worker stopped me and said "dude, f face hasn't been back to work since that night you went home. I'm pretty sure he got fired." I didn't see him again until recently when he was my server at a diner I was eating at. The look on his face was priceless. He went from being a manager at a very successful, high end pub to being my server at the equivalent to a dennys.
    via u/N*quilisdelicious
  • 51
    kthulhu666 My uncle used to work in a restaurant many decades. ago as a teenager. It was his job each morning to strain the cockroaches out of the pancake syrup containers on each table.
    via u/kthulhu666
  • 52
    [deleted] We google everything.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 53
    [... One job wanted me to hide the fact that we were upselling grilled cheese. Edit: I'm glad you all think that this is as rediculous as I did.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 54
    A... Where all the stuff is. I worked at a supermarket and we regularly re- organised the aisles, put the bread on the one end of the shop and half a year later on the other end, things like that.
    via u/Askalan
  • 55
    n... I worked at a popular chain sandwich restaurant in the Chesapeake Bay region. Many customers would order the "crab" sandwich, which was on our "Local" menu as "Seafood Sensation". The mixture was just thawed imperial crab,
    via u/neverendsummer
  • 56
    which is just fish, and mayonnaise. We were told not to tell customers that it lacked any actual crab. It was also foul smelling and plain disgusting.
    via u/neverendsummer
  • 57
    SailorKnots At one spa it was the clocks. They didn't want clients to see what time it was because they would make us cut their massage sessions so they didn't want them to know they were being cheated. At my last spa, our aromatherapy we charged extra for wasn't even real aromatherapy. My
    via u/SailorKnots
  • 58
    boss didn't want to pay the money for real essential oils so they bought fragrance oil or worse, flavors used to usually make lip balm.
    via u/SailorKnots
  • 59
    eDgAR- I worked as a delivery driver for this Japanese restaurant that had two location about 10 minutes apart. We only had one delivery driver on duty at a time and we were not allowed to tell the customers. What sucked about that is that both restaurants had a delivery radius of 5 miles and sometimes there would
    via u/eDgAR-
  • 60
    be a delivery order at the other location which was only like 1 mile away from the house you were supposed to deliver to, but really it was a longer drive for you since you were like 5 miles away at the other location. Not only would you just get a $2 delivery fee when it should have been $5, but then you had to deal with people angry that their food took so long when they thought you were super
    via u/eDgAR-
  • 61
    close. On top of that, when you were working as a cashier, the only tips you were allowed to keep were the ones left on the table. Any ones left one of the two tip. jars we had, or written on credit card recipts in the restaurant, went to the owners and not us. It felt
    via u/eDgAR-
  • 62
    nice when people would tip us because we provided a good service, but then it felt that you wouldn't see any of that money.
    via u/eDgAR-
  • 63
    Mr_Random 4 star hotels are slowly but surely turning into 2 star hotels but double the price and a different brand. Almost all hotel managers employ the same 0 hour minumum wage 0 experience dont give a f (because why should they) emplyees and try to run the buissness with as few staff on shift as possible. This means that the quality of
    via u/Mr__Random
  • 64
    service you get is going to be basically the same at the Hilton or the Holiday Inn because both places are employing identically skilled. staff. Thats not even mentioning all the other corners being cut at basically every hotel everywhere, most of the time ot feels like a pure miracle the place is still standing by the end of your shift.
    via u/Mr__Random
  • 65
    I cannot leave this toxic an industry. wait to of
    via u/Mr__Random
  • 66
    PajamaSamsMom Law firm: "Hi, thanks for holding. The attorney is actually in a meeting with another client right now. Can I take a message for you and they can call back when they're free?" hangs up phone goes back to talking to attorney who didn't want to talk to phone person
    via u/PajamaSamsMom
  • 67
    SammisaurusR3x That our credit card had about a 24% interest rate. I had to tell them they'd get approved in 2 minutes, but honestly over half the time. their credit was too bad for them to get approved. Waste of their time but I just made some extra money.
    via u/SammisaurusR3x
  • 68
    [deleted] At a Denny's I worked for they would take the almost out Tabasco bottles and mix them together, also the ranch was made with water instead of milk, and the manager would still serve soup hours after the heater had turned off even those containing dairy
    via u/[deleted]
  • 69
    Lstle132 I worked in a mid-upper scale chain restaurant once and we had raw sewage back up through the drains in the kitchen. It was Friday night with an hour wait so I guess the manager didn't want to lose the money because he didn't close the restaurant or tell the customers putting them and us at risk. We literally had to
    via u/Lstle132
  • 70
    jump over raw sewage in the kitchen to get to the food. I was like 16 and didn't really know what to do but one of the bussers snapped photos and sent them into the health dept. Not sure what came of it if anything...
    via u/Lstle132
  • 71
    AFTER_THAT_LI... One of our suppliers is a Canadian business ... whom sources all their inventory in China. "So, where do you get this from?" "We get them from a company in Canada."
    via u/AFTER_THAT_LION_DUDE
  • 72
    SolongStarbird This one isn't sketchy or anything like the others, but I work at a bookstore and we have boxes full of recently released books that we have made legal agreements not to sell until a certain date.
    via u/SolongStarbird
  • 73
    So, technically, bookstores will hide certain books from the customers per the publisher's wishes. Nothing wrong with that. Just a fun "did you know?" If you come in and ask for a brand new book and we tell you we don't have it, there's a good chance we have it, we just aren't allowed to sell it quite yet.
    via u/SolongStarbird
  • 74
    substituteathog... Worked at a restaurant, we saved the bread customers didn't touch. Would usually pop em in the microwave to warm them up and make them seem "fresh". I never eat bread at a restaurant now.
    via u/substituteathogwarts
  • 75
    [deleted] Catalog company: There would be a picture of a cheesecake in the catalog, with no dimensions given, nothing in the picture to give you a sense of size. Customers assumed it was a typical pie pan size, like 9" or 10" diameter. It was certainly priced like a full- sized cheesecake. The actual diameter was about half that much.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 76
    [deleted] I'm a teacher. We hate the education system and we think that what you're learning is pointless too and we think standardised testing is ridiculous too and we think that the school is falling apart/badly managed/underfunded too and we also hate that teacher/parent/student that you're about.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 77
    Bi-times-2 I worked in a bakery/lunch shop. One day I came to work and found all the cakes and slices had mice footprints and little nibble marks. I went to throw them out and my boss said "h I no, just run a hot knife over the icing. No one will know" | no longer ate cake there.
    via u/Bi-times-2
  • 78
    custydash I used to work at a gift shop and we had a promotional offer that we had to mention to every customer. We were supposed to act like it was a limited time thing that wouldn't be available shortly, but it had been going on for over a year and there were no plans of ending it.
    via u/custydash
  • 79
    TintarellaDiLuna I got hired on as a manager at this local coffee shop, and quickly found out that the GM was cutting costs EVERYWHERE. If we ran out of beans, we were instructed to put SAMS club coffee beans in the local roasters bags and sell and brew that coffee as normal. He even had us use it for espresso a few times.
    via u/TintarellaDiLuna
  • 80
    The worst was the "frappe mix", which was powdered creamer mixed with folgers instant coffee crystals and a little bit of ground espresso beans for texture. It was disgusting. I also found out that he actually hired me as a replacement and not just an assistant manager. I found
    via u/TintarellaDiLuna
  • 81
    that out when he put in his two weeks notice. That worked out better in the long run because we're actually making a profit now and we don't sell gross sh anymore.
    via u/TintarellaDiLuna
  • 82
    matts41 I was a tutor for kids from wealthy families once. The company charged the parents $96 an hour and we earned $11 an hour. Yeah we weren't allowed to tell them that.
    via u/matts41
  • 83
    23msginger I work at a coffee place and they don't use espresso. They use regular coffee and tell people it's espresso. People normally don't complain unless it's a straight shot or Americano. Even then... Most don't even notice. It's terrible tho. I've told customers before. Shame on me.
    via u/23msginger

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