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I’ve often wondered whether or not people who are asked to and agree to sign a NDA before taking or keeping a job ever regret it. Like…do they find out things they can’t forget? Things they wish they didn’t know?
Or, like me, do they just realized that they’re terrible at keeping secrets when they’ve got access to something really good?
Whatever the answer, these people no longer have to worry about it – their NDAs have expired and they’re blurting out all the goods below!
1. I Did Not Expect That
When I was tech before I was a vet, I worked in a lab that mostly tested animal meds on animals. Flea products, heartworm meds, etc.
We had one product in testing for human medication though, which was an injection that supposedly was going to shorten the need to wear retainers after having braces.
Of course, to test that, we needed animals that had worn braces long enough to replicate the changes that happen to human mouths that have had braces.
What I’m getting at, was that some days it was my job to brush the mouths of like 50 beagles that all had braces and make sure the wires and brackets were in place and not causing any trauma to the lips or gingiva.
The image of dozens of goofy little dogs clack clack clacking around me in circles around the lab super excited to see me, doing their ridiculous beagle howls and flashing their braces as they did so will never leave my brain.
2. Behind the Curtain
I was Guy Fieri’s body person for 6 months. This involved a lot of personal assistant stuff: booking travel (air, ubers in a pinch, dude usually rode around in all black sedans), confirming what the advance teams did before Guy gets there. Most of my job was to handle his personal life when he was “on the job”. I had to sign three NDA’s, but I’m only sharing what happened on the show.
Guy gave me the impression he really didn’t like what he did. Every morning he would say “more of this bs” even on so-called “buffer days” when we had an extra day before or after shooting and we had much of the day to ourselves.
After three weeks of working with him, I figured out that Red Bulls are his binky. He’s got some crazy ADHD so the caffeine really didn’t phase him. When he would get stressed out, he’d rage up a little, but then he’d completely shut down. A Red Bull just…made him calm again.
Guy does NOT remember the stuff he says. People walk up to him and joke about “flavourtown” and he’d look at me after the fact and ask “What’s flavortown?” I had to remind him that he came up with that. My favorite was someone who went on a cruise – apparently Carnival Cruise Lines has Guy’s restaurants. (I haven’t been on a cruise yet, I’ll find out sooner or later) Anyway, this fan loved the “Donkey Sauce” that he put on his burgers.
Dude deada$$ didn’t remember he did that. I had access to his computer and I saw recipe drafts for D-Sauce. There were scores of events similar to this, every. single. time. Guy would have no idea.
It sort of floors me that this guy influences so many people and he doesn’t give a damn. He doesn’t hate his fans, but he thinks interacting with people is a hassle. He legit doesn’t understand why he’s a celebrity, which boggles my mind how much effort he puts into his shtick. That one British chef who lied about cooking for the Queen has more cognizance about his fame than Guy.
On a personal note, his family is full of sweethearts and I went above and beyond a few times to help them out. All I want to say about his fam. They’re really nice people.
3. Your Suspicions Are True
Xfinity internet officially sucks balls (not that’s any secret), buy your own equipment and stop paying then rental fees, along with any XFI advanced security feature charge bullshit they offering you.
Company wise, they know you a sucker.
I’m a former Xfinity software developer who worked on gateway firmware updates designed to slow down your network to make you think outside forces were the cause, thus trying to sell you an advanced security package that negated the intentional slowdowns under the guise of network security.
And now I can talk about it.
4. An Actual Nightmare
Over 20 years ago I took part in a pre trial hearing. A near by dam was being sued by the family of a dam worker.
The family was suing for an undisclosed amount to 1) cover medical expenses 2) pain and suffering and 3) negligence of maintenance of the facility.
What happened: The dam had received multiple complaints about lack of maintenance. This particular dam was a working dam but hadn’t been maintained in several decades. Before the incident an engineer had written a report saying the maintenance supports for the walk ways above the boilers needed to be completely closed until replaced.
This was not done.
A maintenance worker went onto the walk way above the boilers. The walk way failed and the worker was plunged into boiling water completely submerging him. His co workers were able to retrieve him in under 30 seconds.
This worker spent the next 9months in the ICU before dying to infection.
His body suffer 99.9% 3 degree burns.
We awarded (in the pre trial hearing) 1,000,000 per second the man was boiled. Additionally, all medical expenses paid and the remaining possible wages earned paid in full. Including full medical and dental to the family for the next 35 years.
TLDR – man was boiled alive because the company was cheap.
5. I Hate That This Has To Exist
I work for a moving company and we work with a women’s shelter often enough.
Typically women escaping abuse will have the shelter hire us to go in and get their belongings (sometimes with police company) and all the movers sign NDA’s to protect the women from letting their new addresses slip.
I can’t disclose anything that interesting but I want to take the opportunity to say, those people who jump at the slightest sound, the littlest surprise, be nice to them because you don’t know whether they are just jumpy naturally or if there’s a reason they are like that now.
6. Behind the Big Screen
Work in film VFX so there’s a lot.
The obvious is always that studio interface = terrible movie.
I’ve never worked on a film and heard “the studio wants to reshoot this sequence” and ever had it turned out to be a good thing.
But my guess is 99% of you know that.
There are so many good movies you’ll never get to see because of studios. I mean you’ll see them but not until they’re recut, reshot, and completely devoid of any artistic vision that created them.
People point to “the Snyder cut” or now Suicide Squad and I can honestly tell you if a film is over 50 million and not directed by Scorsese, Nolan or Tarantino it’s created by a mindless collection of studio executives who don’t know a thing about filmmaking.
Ad Astra was incredible and would’ve been such a tribute to 2001 but the studio saw it and got scared of James making a slow paced science fiction film that made you think.
They pulled it from him, made a mess when it was given to a second editor (because he wanted to add 15 million in new VFX shots) then given back to James to fix but with this new direction.
Woman in the window was interesting and while not a great thriller, something that was decent and thought provoking. Think Shutter Island. But three test audiences in New Jersey, a second distribution company (Fox to Disney) and a second director for massive reshoots created the sh*%show that was unloaded on Netflix.
There are several big time films that’ll never see the light of day because the studio bought them and is sitting on their release. Things you’ve never heard of with great directors and casts because the studio doesn’t want to be associated with it for whatever reason. Weinstein was notorious for this but several other producers have done the same.
What’s going on with Scarlet Johansson right now is waaaay too common for everyone in the industry. Only difference is she’s above being blackballed and has the money to pay for the lawyers needed to defend her.
Finally just know if you go to a film and say “how did they not fix that shot” realize the director wanted to, we just didn’t get approval, or “who comes up with this crap” it probably wasn’t crap until the studio got involved.
Y’all, I live for posts like these. I don’t know why I love secrets so much, but I definitely do!
If you’ve got some good trade secrets that you’re allowed to share, please give us more gossip in the comments!
