There are certain industries we've all heard of being problematic if not pointedly dark in nature.
But there are industries out there that most people don't realize are dark until they've already gotten involved in them.
Curious, Redditor Mustdominate_Otal asked:
"What industry is a lot more dark and sinister than most people realize?"
Nursing Homes
"F**king nursing homes. I didn’t think the worst part of EMS would be learning how most nursing homes in my area treat their patients. But it is. By far."
- Jigsaw115
"Absolutely. I've responded to so many calls in nursing homes. Walk in and they smell like p**s, my shoes are sticking to the floor, and it looks like the walking dead inside there."
"One time I responded to one for difficulty breathing to find they had their guy on a non-rebreather at 4 LPM... No wonder he couldn't breathe."
"There were some in the nice areas that were like resorts though. Massive restaurant-style cafeterias, tennis courts, the works. It was just insane seeing how much better off the people at those nice SNFs were as well, compared to the sh*tty ones. It was living corpses compared to regular old people. Awful."
- tommymad720
The Produce Industry
"The Tomato industry. I went to a lecture for extra credit in college on the history of the tomato."
"I was expecting to hear how people used it and where people started growing them and whatnot. What I got was essentially a full season of 'The Sopranos.' Extortion, murder, blackmail, vandalism, you name it...the tomato industry was rife with the worst s**t."
- Mimmzy
Cruise Life
"Cruise Lines. Man overboard tech exists that would drastically reduce the number of lives lost at sea but it comes at a cost."
"The large cruise line I worked at wouldn't even consider it unless a competitor did it first. It will never be implemented."
- akalias_1981
Floral Arrangements
"I thought working at a local flower shop would be rosy and idyllic until I was told to upsell grieving widows on already overpriced casket sprays."
- Sure_Disk8972
"This is far too true. My wife is a floral designer at a large florist. She went in thinking, 'Yay! Play with flowers and make pretty stuff all day,' and it is definitely not that most of the time. It's 'Sorry for your loss, that’ll be $1600.'"
- Diddler_On_The_Roofs
Charity And Fundraising
"I'm surprised I’ve not seen the charity sector. Funding fraud, mistreatment and underpayment of staff, and focusing more on PR than actually doing anything of substance are commonplace."
- quarterlifecrisisgirl
"The charities that raise awareness can go suck on a large sack of s**t."
"Recently a charity did a fun run to aid breast cancer in my local area.. My aunt, whose daughter died of breast cancer 'ran' it, hoping the money she raised would be useful to someone. She raised a modest 5,000 dollars herself, and the event overall raised another 55,000 dollars."
"As it turned out, the charity the money went to was only for awareness with five percent actually going to help charities that deal with supporting people with breast cancer. Most of the money went to fund the event and the board of directors, who took a 40 percent cut of the proceeds themselves."
- Bobthemime
Aquarium Industry
"The Aquarium industry is awful. The amount of death and fish we just throw away would shock you. On top of that, so many shops sell fish to people who are not set up properly to take care of the animal."
- furious_george3030
"I absolutely adore fancy goldfish. I love the weird-looking ones. I started looking into goldfish breeding/selling and noped the f**k out, it's so sad."
"The really high-end, fancy ones are like pugs. They have so many health problems that get bred into them just to achieve a look. And so many breeders treat the fish absolutely atrociously with almost zero oversight."
"Then I started looking into aquaculture as a whole and it's just a mess of an industry."
- b1tchf1t
The Towing Industry
"The towing/tow truck industry, at least here in Toronto where it is very territorial and well connected."
- granada_anda
"It's legitimately just organized crime at this point."
- FreddyVanJeeze
Mobile Gaming
"People who make games, especially mobile games."
- tiratiramisu4
"Some yearly games are even designed in such a way that you'll grow bored of it by the time the new one comes out. The amount of subliminal psychology at play in our everyday lives is insane."
- SpehlingAirer
"It depends on what the game is and who is making it, honestly."
"A lot of indies are fine. eg, Tarn Adams (aka the Toady One) is pretty universally loved for being awesome by the Dwarf Fortress community. He developed DF for free for 20 years and, when he finally decided to sell it (through Kitfox, a really awesome publisher) people were practically throwing money at him in appreciation of everything and literally made him and his brother Zach (who helps with game design) millionaires. (You can still download DF for free, by the way.)"
"But any of the larger companies can be pretty bad a lot of times. EA, Ubisoft, all those guys are definitely garbage. (EA is particularly sad for me because I'm old enough to remember when they were considered one of the best publishers ever. Every game was quality. I have absolutely no idea what happened to them to make them the way they are in 2024.)"
- temalyen
Train Conducting
"I work as a professional conductor. The competition is fierce. If you think academics are nasty…"
"We graduate THOUSANDS of conducting students each year, and there are about 100 major podiums worldwide. To get to a podium like that, you’re going to have to do things you aren’t proud of, and live with it. If you can live with it…well. That’s another discussion. The politics, backstabbing, and mistreatment of others is a staple."
- MewsikMaker
The Twists And Turns Of Finances
"I'm going to say Finance but not for the reason most people think. I work in trading, and my colleagues are some of the smartest people on the planet. Former chemists, physicists, virologists, aerospace engineers, statisticians, materials scientists, and etc."
"They all get burnt out barely able to keep their research going and being for grant money, then they get recruited into financial firms to do the same kind of work they enjoy but get paid 10 times or even 100 times. They don't have to deal with customers, and they see direct indicators of the quality of their work."
"Finance takes people who could be changing the world for the better, and once they cross the event horizon there's no going back. The other half of the problem is how difficult it is to get funding for research to improve the world, but finance is the black hole from which there is no escape."
- _tood**nparanoid_
Dog Shelters
"Dog shelters. There are a lot of people that breed dogs without knowing what they’re doing, and just doing it to make money."
"Dogs are born with illnesses and disabilities so get ditched and left behind, ending up in a dog shelter."
"Here it’s filled with dogs still 'too healthy' to pass away but 'too weak' to live. If we wouldn’t take care of them they wouldn’t survive for a day."
"If you ever want to get a dog, please get one from a GOOD shelter. Know what you’re getting, but please don’t go find a cheap breeder."
- rigstar88
Real Estate
"Real estate. I'm a copywriter for a US real estate corporation and can't wait to get the fuck away from them. Disgusting industry. But right now I need to pay my bills."
- Rich-Anxiety5105
"I worked for a 40-person office. Not an agent, but office support. And holy s**t, 10% of them made up 50 percent of my problems."
"Unfilled paperwork, picky demands, 'I'm late doing this and now it's your problem' attitudes...Out of that off, at best, one in four were decent people with enough work coming in to make it. A few others were decent people who were struggling."
"And at least half of them could barely operate the multiple listing system database that they all used. The level of incompetence was staggering."
"Really folks, if you're getting a realtor, check after them. And if you don't like the one you have as part of a larger firm, talk to the lead broker in the office. They'd rather switch you to another realtor than lose your business."
- painstream
Gambling
"Gambling. However sinister you think it is... it's more than that."
- PlatterHoldingNomad
"Literally everyone knows the phrase, 'The house always wins,' and yet..."
- freedfg
Academia
"Academia. Abuse. Exploiting young ambitious people. Nepotism. Inefficient allocation of resources."
- MiceAreTiny
"Yep, a family friend got his PhD and was excited to start his career in university research and teaching. He lasted about three years before he was burned out from the nepotism and backstabbing."
"He went into public research for about the next 15 years but got tired of everything being contingent on the next grant. He is now happily self-employed."
"He said if he had to do it over again, he would have stopped at his master's degree and just gone into the private industry straight away. He would have gotten paid more, had better job security, and, likely a better working environment."
- Vivienne1973
"Everybody agrees that the system is sick and f**ked up. However, anybody that can change the system benefits from not changing it."
- MiceAreTiny
Some of these reveals were dark to the point of being chilling. The worst part is that most of these industries are so unknown for their darker natures, it's hard to know if you're supporting something you'd rather not.
