Two Reddit threads have recently sparked a flurry of responses, exposing dark secrets of different companies that could potentially tarnish their reputation. One post asked Redditors to reveal any company secrets that would ruin the company's image if made public. Another post encouraged people to spill the beans on any juicy secrets about their employer that they believed the public should know.

The responses were shocking and eye-opening, to say the least. One user claimed that their former employer, a well-known food chain, routinely served expired and rotten food to customers. Another user alleged that their company deliberately hired women for lower salaries than men.

Some people revealed that their employers had been involved in various illegal activities, including embezzlement and tax evasion. Others shared information about companies that engaged in unethical practices like exploiting workers, lying to customers, and using harmful chemicals in their products. But they all highlight the need for transparency and accountability in the corporate world.

#1

Nestlé supports warlords, slavery and other wonderful things in the countries they get cacao from. Oh wait, that isn't exactly a secret, is it?

Image credits: jerenept

#2

That PETA actually kills animals. I'm pretty sure 10% of the people that know about PETA know this.

Image credits: anon

#3

im not sure if vile is the right description, more like ignorance. i worked at a large electronic retail chain, and on top of the storage door frame was a sign that reads “work will set you free”

google that phrase if you do not recognise its source

Image credits: Gnodgnod

#4

**Breast Cancer awareness products**

So you would think that all of those products that are plastered in pink would have to give money to cancer research. Well if it says "breast cancer awareness" they actually don't have to. The claim is that they are *raising awareness* which is why they are pink. Intentionally misleading though.

Image credits: anon

#5

A New Zealand owned burger chain (that I worked at for 6 years during school/college) sent all it's staff out a "Style Manual", to go with it's new uniform.

It recommended we wear MAC makeup (which is $60 a bottle over here), and said, quote: "leave for work looking hot enough to take a selfie #burgerfuel #makeup #hot #selfie". They introduced short shorts, which only went up to size 10, so a chubby girl at my work was reduced to tears having to wear men's shorts.

As a manager, I deliberately walked in looking like utter c**p and refusing to wear their precious shorts (my boss bought them a size too small on purpose so everyone's asses were hanging out). I let everyone on my shift wear what they wanted until the day I left. We didn't get paid enough to be patty-flipping strippers. What the flipping f**k.

Image credits: anon

#6

Coca Cola

"In the 1970s, a Coca-Cola franchised bottling plant in Guatemala suffered a spate of mysterious murders of union-affiliated employees ..."

"...To date, there have been a total of 179 major human rights violations of Coca-Cola's workers, including 9 murders. Family members of union activists have been abducted and tortured...."

..."Coca-Cola has been accused of bribing the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD). In 2003 Coca-Cola donated $1 million to the AAPD. Later that year the AAPD stated that "scientific evidence is certainly not clear on the exact role that soft drinks play in terms of children's oral disease", directly contradicting their previous statements such as "consumption of sugars in any beverage can be a significant factor…that contributes to the initiation and progression of dental caries." Critics have stated it certainly appears that Coca-Cola has "paid dentists to stop saying kids shouldn't drink Coke".[37][38]..."

It just goes on and on.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Coca-Cola

Image credits: anon

#7

KFC goes to some pretty crazy lengths to protect their secret spices...only three people in the world know what they are, and they are never allowed to travel on the same plane, or be in the same vicinity.

That's next level s**t.

Image credits: lukedimarco

#8

Not really a "company secret" but it is pretty vile.

I used to work at Waffle House. I had just come in to start my overnight shift and I was doing my walkthrough, making a list of things for 2nd shift to finish before they left.

I checked the steam-tables and found sausage gravy and chili in it. Sausage gravy shouldn't be in the steam tables as long as this had. It gets too runny. Whatever, happens all the time, they don't usually serve it, they're just too lazy to clean it out because it cakes to the sides.

Then I take the lid off the chili.

Gross white fuzzy mold on top. And it's the stinky type. You could smell it the moment the lid came off. I called my manager over to show him. There was obviously something wrong if it was growing mold. Either sat there way too long, or steam table temps were messed up, or whatever. Don't know, don't care. His job, so I called him over. He *immediately* stirs it up and says it's fine.

Ummm.. WHAT?

He says it's not a problem, go ahead and serve it. I told him there's no way I can do that. He pulls me in close, like he's telling me a secret, and says we have to sell that chili because we have no chili made to replace it, and, anyway, food costs are too high. I told him I didn't care, and I'd be throwing it away.

He's insistent. "Throw it away if you want, but it's fine. I'd sell it. You'll just be upsetting customers if they want it and can't have it."

One more time I look him in the eye, raise my voice so the customer about 5 feet away can hear me, and I say "**I'm not selling moldy chili.**"

He just says "whatever" and storms off. I immediately texted my store manager and district manager. No answer. Next morning I e-mail corporate. No answer. Couple days later I e-mailed Department of Labor and the Health Department. Got a "thanks for the head's-up" e-mail. Nothing ever happened to the guy. As far as I know (still friends with many of the employees there and the rumor mill is worse than middle school) no one (corporate, DoL, HD) even contacted the store or management.

Image credits: SadBrontosaurus

#9

I used to work at Walmart, and during training, they show new employees an hour long anti union propaganda film.

Image credits: Three_foot_hobbit

#10

Large American restaurant chains and their use of microwaves for almost everything.

Image credits: projectseven

#11

I work at one of the biggest producer of soups worldwide. When you would know how the machine looks and how rare they get cleaned you would NEVER eat instant soup. The first time we did a weekend cleaning, i puked becouse it was so disgusting.
Sorry for mistakes im on phone

Image credits: Lokrano

#12

I am a manager at a fast food restaurant (I won't name it because I unfortunately still need my job there) and my regional manager told me I'd 'volunteer' hours or get fired. I asked about certain laws against this and was told that he could fire me for something else, the cameras at said store don't even work. I also had to close the store down by myself, also off the clock, because "managers should fend for themselves." Upon being hired as a manager, I was told I could move up in the company indefinitely. They then fired my boss for her getting paid too much. That's the legitimate reason they used. I'm not even sure how that works. The whole company is corrupt and I wish I could find a new job. Seriously, I was nearly fired because my till was short about 200 dollars. When they checked the cameras (they worked then, this was years ago) they saw it was the district manager's daughter. The matter was dropped and she still works there. I hate my job. None of this is really a 'deep dark secret' but I felt the need to vent.

Image credits: FerociousOreos

#13

My last job trained us how to deal with "people of lower socioeconomic status." It was a class on how to understand poor people and why they're different from other people. There were charts and videos all explaining how not to think of them as irresponsible, but to understand that their uneducated selves have a different, poor culture. It was one of those situations that leave you looking around the room wondering if anyone else sees how absurd the situation is.

Image credits: Alpha_Blonde

#14

On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide--now part of Dow--accidentally killed 5,000 residents of Bhopal, India, when its pesticide plant sprung a leak. It abandoned the plant without cleaning it up, and since then, an estimated 15,000 more people have died from complications, most resulting from chemicals released into the groundwater.

Although legal investigations have consistently pinpointed Union Carbide as culprit, both Union Carbide and Dow have had to publicly deny these findings. After the accident, Union Carbide compensated victims' families between US$300 and US$500 per victim.

Image credits: hubhub

#15

Worked at a start-up web design firm a few years back. We were making a browser-based city builder game, and my job was creating little Flash mini-games that could be played in it for resources bonuses and such. There was one game that kinda evolved, got out of hand, and we fleshed it out into a full-fledged standalone game as a means to get attention for our project by submitting this game to Newgrounds and such. Kind of a "hey, if you like this game, I make many more like it for this browser-based city simulator!"

Totally legit operation too.

Until I found out what the company President was doing. He was going to the other games featured on the sites I submitted to, creating accounts, and dumping on other games. He was giving one-star reviews and 0/10's and thumbsdowns, all shamelessly, all w***y nilly, and dropping the same copy/paste comment to them all. "This game sucks, you should play this game instead:" and he'd link to my game.

I'm glad that company dissolved and that fat opportunistic f**k isn't in charge of anything anymore.

Image credits: anon

#16

I was in the Marines for 5 years. Other than a few absolutely SHINING examples of macho-ism and fitness the vast majority of the force is fat, lazy, disgusting, ignorant pieces of human s**t. Literally some of the worst people I've ever met. Sorry to my fellow Devil Dog's but you f*****g know its true and if you don't you are that slob.

Image credits: anon

#17

I work for an insurance compnay....yes yes they are all evil. We are taught/told that if a potential client lives in a not so nice area we are to make it as difficult as possible to give them our product (as we cannot flat out say no becasue i live in Canada and its the law). So if they live in low income housing we would ask for an impossible amount of paper work add surcharges and/or make them wait up to a month for us to "process the paper work".

#18

Victoria Secret uses child slaves

Image credits: WesleyDonaldson

#19

Abercrombie and Fitch will burn clothes that are damaged even in the slightest way. I'm talking a tiny hole from a security tag, a slight loose threading in the logo on a hoodie. They will not donate these clothes to the people that need them because it would tarnish their reputation as a 'luxury brand'

Image credits: Right_and_Left

#20

The restaurant was only dimmed not to be fancy but rather hide the mouse hole problem

Image credits: softdragon

#21

We test makeup on babies. Chinese children are cheaper than rabbits.

Image credits: anon

#22

Big Mac sauce: Thousand Island dressing.
McChicken sauce: Hellmans mayonnaise.
I tell people this all the time but they insist "it's different"

Image credits: anon

#23

Despite the greenwashed, worker-friendly image, Trader Joe's routinely uses sweatshop labor and partners in companies that use human trafficked labor. On top of that, they refuse to sign the Coalition of Immokalee Workers petition to bring tomato picking prices up to a (relatively) living wage....a move that companies like Burger King and Taco Bell were perfectly willing to make. They also use an opaque and questionable "self-audit" system to verify their products are organic, non-GMO, gluten free etc...a move that bucks an industry-wide trend towards using third parties to verify.

#24

The bank HSBC does any kind of s**t, from money laundering to financing warlords. It was actually founded to profit from the opium wars and has been fined multiple times for any kind of crimes.

#25

Dunkin donuts at fenway park serves regular coffee as decaf. Kinda scummy for people that are trying to get off caffeine.

EDIT: Due to the upvotes I will post the email I got about my complaint. Ridiculous -

Dear SgtDowns,



Thank you for taking the time to contact Dunkin' Donuts. We always appreciate hearing from our guests. It's important to us to get feedback both good and bad about our products and the service you receive at our restaurants. We will make sure your comments get heard and shared with the appropriate people.

At Dunkin' Donuts we value our guests and are committed to making your visits to our restaurants a pleasant experience. We look forward to the opportunity to serve you again soon.



Bob
Guest Relations Coordinator



Case #8223131

Image credits: SgtDowns

#26

My company does retail audits. Stores essentially pay us money to tell them they're being stolen from. It's likely that the majority of us do what we can to ensure it looks like they are being stolen from.
Tl;dr: We lie to liars to make sure we can all still lie to each other for money.

Image credits: Yogimast_er

#27

Not huge, but if we have less than two of the size you're looking for in the back we're 'out'. We make better revenue and reviews from those 48 hour online deliveries. So if you order from our in store computer with the free shipping you're probably getting something a 150 feet away from where you're standing.

Image credits: JehovahsHalibut

#28

The agency I work for provides services for people with developmental disabilities. They have a positive, uplifting mission statement, and market the agency as such. However, in reality, all they really care about is milking Medicaid for every penny, and expanding the agency in order to create an empire (instead of improving what they have; quantity, not quality). It's disgusting.

#29

Apple has an in house security firm which essentially works the same way as a private security firm for diplomats. Essentially, they are a part of Apple but exist on their own. I don't know if they still do this but here is how it used to go down...

When Apple believed a leak had come from a department they would send in this security firm. The guy in charge would go to the manager and tell him to step out and calmly tell everyone to activate their screen savers and place their phones on their desks. No one is allowed to talk during this time.

The security guys will then go around and download the entire contents of every workstation there onto laptops and then do the same thing with their phones. The reason they can do this is because they give free Apple products to their employees to use but since they not only made the product but "gave" it to them they have the right to invade their employees personal data.

After that they wrap up and walk out without a word and everyone is left to ponder if someone will be getting fired, whether that's due to being the source of the leak or the security guys finding something else.

Moral of the story: Be careful what gifts you accept from an employer.

#30

Former sous chef at PF Changs. Don't eat chicken lettuce wraps. It's basically all the parts of the chicken you would normally throw away ground up, mixed with ground water chestnuts and rehydrated mushrooms. Tossed in a wok with what we call dark sauce (tons if salt and sugar). We basically turned waste into our most popular app.

Image credits: brianbadluck

#31

Walmart doesn't sell walls.

Image credits: Ryalre

#32

I think if people actually saw Taco Bell squirt that meat out of a hose onto that tortilla, they'd have a lot smaller appetite (for like five minutes, then they'd eat it anyways).

Edit: I'd like to point out that both of these instances happened quite some time ago. I saw the meat hose in person when I lived in Brookhaven Mississippi, which was about ten years ago, and the broken one happened maybe a few months prior visiting my relatives in the Jackson, MS area. Several people have worked there etc. and they didn't use a hose. Maybe they changed this practice since then? Not sure, I'll have to check next time I'm in those areas.

TL;DR Taco Bell uses a nasty meat hose.

Image credits: nuclearkumquat7

#33

The honest answer: absolutely nothing. Most big companies have huge some-not-so-secret-skeletons in their closets and that people still don't shy away from using their products/services.

Image credits: kcman011

#34

I work at a large scale events venue in Australia. We host conferences and corporate banquets among other events.

Often with the larger banquets the clients will have a sponsor for whatever they are drinking like a beer or wine producer, so they freight the supplier's drinks to our venue (in bulk, like pallets full) and we serve it. There is no tracking procedures for the booze apart from how much we received in freight and how much goes back to the supplier.

After these functions the stock control guys skim off dozens of cartons of booze to be stowed away in a storeroom. Considering this happens on a fortnightly basis on average, they have pallets full by the end of the year then they get rid of it all (they take it home or use it for our staff xmas party).

I've often thought if they tried to fire me I'd just email all the alcohol producers in Aus and tell them we've been flogging their stock for years. Considering the taxes they are stung by it would be a pretty big deal (cheap carton of beer in Aus is $40 retail).

TL,DR: Events venue steals beer and wine off suppliers by the pallet load then either drinks it or uses it for staff parties. Woo!

#35

American Apparel hires based on attractiveness and promotes based on willingness to f**k the CEO.

Edit: it's on gawker so I guess not so secret.

http://gawker.com/5564171/life-at-american-apparel-the-employees-speak

#36

I work for a private ambulance company that will charge to take you to a hospital when you dont need to go. Also they dont train us how to drive and someone eventually hit a pedestrian. Best part is they left them on the side of the freeway.

#37

The director of the law center for people with disabilities here can't read and is a lecherous creep who fired two advocates and shipped our supervising attorney to an office 700 miles away for reporting him to the board for sexual harassment, then had the receptionist/secretary deported. Over a million dollar budget and does NOTHING to help people with disabilities.

#38

The toilet seat covers in public restrooms do nothing.

Image credits: anon

#39

Not me. My mother retired as a nurse from Veteran's Administration Hospitals. She states there where rats commonly visible in the food preparation areas in the basement of the building. The food they serve our veterans. Overall the place was pretty unhygienic but that was the worst. Nobody in staff ate from the cafeteria.

#40

Staples is really Office Depot.

Image credits: anon

#41

It's probably an open secret, but the claw machines where you try to win plush toys at arcades have a payout percentage that is set by the staff. The payout is calculated based on the unit price of the toy and the cost per game on the machine. No matter how much claw-poising skill you bring, you're not going to win until you've spent a few times the price of the toy playing the game (not you specifically, but whoever else has played before you as well).

#42

AT&T- they have a good amount of the public and the government by the balls. They answer to no one and they call the shots

#43

There is no such thing as freedom of speech at petsmart, I was told so by the store manager.

#44

Friend of mine told me that coworkers of his at Burger King used to p**s on the grill when they cleaned it because the manager chewed them out for not cleaning the grill good enough. He said they did it about a dozen times before he threatened to tell the manager if they didn't stop it.

Burger King in West Plains, Missouri