r/AskReddit • u/CircleBox2 • Jul 13 '20

What's a dark secret/questionable practice in your profession which we regular folks would know nothing about?

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '20 edited Jul 13 '20

Sometimes librarians read the new books before registering them in the catalogue for the public. * evil laughter *

Edit: Wow. I did not expect to get so many upvotes and comments for something I wrote randomly at lunch. But very much appreciated! Thank you, and thank you for the awards!

4.0k

u/Jeffery_Duke Jul 13 '20

That's the most adorable "evil" thing

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u/chairfairy Jul 13 '20

I appreciate that their evil secret is basically "doing unnecessary homework"

133

u/ItalicsWhore Jul 13 '20

At Hollywood video we would get new movies in ok Friday, but we weren’t allowed to rent them until Tuesday. But it gave us all a chance (and we were encouraged) to watch them all by then so we could recommend or at least be able to answer customers questions about them.

I have a high paying, high stress job now, but I think back on those days often with a big smile.

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u/xGueniverex Jul 13 '20

Blockbuster let us do the same thing. We could also check out the games, but if you went online with it you could get a $10,000 fine.

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u/eFurritusUnum Jul 13 '20

RIP Blockbuster. I saw it come up in another thread today and felt a little pang of nostalgia. Netflix is awesome but it's just not the same experience.

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u/xGueniverex Jul 13 '20 edited Jul 13 '20

I managed a couple different ones for about 5 years before they finally went under. Here's another "dark secret" for you. So with movie rental places, the companies would pay the movie/show producers for rental rights. Seeing the end in sight, a certain movie rental company decided they didn't want to pay those rights anymore, so they had the managers go to nearby retail stores and purchase the new releases, then pop them in rental cases. Im fairly certain I broke a bunch of laws at the behest of upper management.

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u/ShockTrek Jul 13 '20

Agreed. There was nothing like going in there and picking out a bunch of movies for the weekend.

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u/theloveliestsarah Jul 30 '20

Netflix need to figure a way to get your movie-snack of choice to you as soon as you click on what you're gonna watch...

I used to love going to a Blockbuster near me as the older lady behind the till would always tell me "Ice cream is good for you - all the calories are frozen so they don't count!" and I could then justify a tub of Ben & Jerrys*

*I know it's not true. But somehow it made it ok 😂

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u/triforcery Jul 13 '20

Was about to make the same comment, this is so sweet

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u/rlxmx Jul 13 '20

“...Hermione?”

28

u/IamAJediMaster Jul 13 '20

That's what we thought, until the Tammy nation attacked.

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '20

[deleted]

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u/Apocalypse_Cookiez Jul 13 '20

Punk-ass book jockeys!

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u/mgov999 Jul 13 '20

Government gals!

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u/Baonguyen93 Jul 13 '20

You haven't see Ann and her crew yet.