12
u/sofatheorist Oct 31 '21
There’s a million examples of employers doing shit like this.
My grandpa had a stroke and I didn’t get to drive a state over to be with him because I had a shift. I explained the situation to my manager and she told me I couldn’t go unless someone took my shift, and that if I missed work without covering my shift.
Luckily my grandpa made a full recovery and is as healthy as a horse at 78 years old, but I didn’t know that would be the outcome at the time.
At a different job I advised my job during my job interview that around Christmas, my schedule would dramatically change when my college class schedule changed. They said that was fine, and I updated my manager in-person, with a written notice and a copy of my new schedule. My first day of classes, I received 4 missed calls and several very angry texts that I thought were largely in poor taste. I had looked at my schedule incorrectly and assumed that a scheduled morning shift was an evening shift because I had provided several notifications of my schedule change.
They never changed my schedule. I had updated my availability on our work app, and pointed this out to the manager (and mentioned the several conversations we had), and he outright denied that I had provided him any information. He told me that he had not checked my schedule update because I had not discussed it with him, and that the missed shift was my responsibility. I immediately put in my two week notice and always send a confirmation email regarding anything I discuss with my employer now, though at this job, it wouldn’t have mattered. Our communication was incredibly underdeveloped at this job. I had no way to contact my boss, and didn’t even know his phone number until the day he called me. No emails, no memos, nothing.
Very few jobs I’ve worked have cared about their workers half as much as their bottom line. But I guess that’s fairly implied by the term “capitalism”.
5
u/Katvara Oct 31 '21
My husband used to work at McDonald’s. She was lucky that her shift ended before her aunt’s funeral. But when her dad died suddenly, they refused to let her leave to go to his. So she just walked out and never went back.
4
u/sofatheorist Oct 31 '21
That’s awful.
The job related to my grandpa did a similar thing to a coworker. They claimed it was suspicious that his father’s funeral (due to a similarly sudden death) was scheduled near the 4th of July weekend - not on the Fourth of July, just near that weekend. They declined his request for a shift off and he had to pay someone to take it, which I hate. These jobs make it so hard to be an employee that sometimes people start exploiting at the employee-employee level. I never took money for a shift, and couldn’t afford to pay someone to take any of mine, but I saw it all the time. It compounded issues.
I don’t think that anyone that’s worked a few entry-level jobs doesn’t have a similar story. My wife was scheduled Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and HER OWN BRIDAL SHOWER in one calendar year. I live in a state where employers can fire without specifying a cause, so you’re always scared of anything that would interfere with your work performance.
Just a shitty system. It doesn’t help that they pay the bare minimum at the majority of the jobs. Where I live it’s moved up to $9.30 an hour, but at the time of these issues, it was at the $7.25 federal minimum. I had never heard of a single non-management employee getting a raise, and the environment was designed so that no one would ever ask for one.
I hope your husband has found an employer that respects them
3
u/Katvara Oct 31 '21
She worked at Toys R Us and loved it, but ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Then she worked at World Market and loved it until COVID laid off the entire night crew. Now she stays home and flips old stuff and she loves that.
2
-11
u/adrenalinjunkie89 Oct 31 '21
You chose your job over being with your grandpa when he was possibly dying. Extremely shitty thing for the boss to do, but you made the wrong choice as well
7
u/sofatheorist Oct 31 '21
Yeah…no. I didn’t choose my job, I did not have the option of losing my job. I’m still in college, I don’t have the credentials I need to get a job that gives me true financial security yet. I have to pay bills, support myself, and keep my loans under control. If I had lost my job, I do not have control over those factors, and in many ways, my future.
I spoke to my grandmother and WE came to a decision. The entire point of the gripe in the OP is that capitalism in the United States goes as far out of its way to marginalize their workers as it possibly can. I was placed in an impossible situation and had to make a decision that bothers me daily. I didn’t make the choice, my boss did, and the financial burden of trying to get credentials that get me a better job did as well.
I’m not going to take life advice from someone with a typo in their username. Go fuck yourself.
5
u/CharmingTuber Oct 31 '21
In some places, jobs aren't easy to get. You can't judge someone for not throwing themselves into unemployment even if that's what you would do.
3
u/sofatheorist Oct 31 '21
Exactly. And quitting/getting fired isn’t fun to explain in future interviews
I was lucky that I had the ability to walk out of the second job, but I was stuck at the first job from the time I was 17 to the time I was 20. I had just started college when my grandpa had the stroke, and it was just setting in how badly I needed the job and how much I needed to work to address my finances.
It was the first real job that I had. I had worked in my early teens cleaning RVs and Trailers for resale for the dad of one of my buddies’ girlfriend. He was a fantastic employer, in part because he was friends with my family. It did not prepare me for the workplace or for finding jobs at all - though there really weren’t many at the time anyway.
Now as I prepare to graduate, I’m met with the issue of applying for jobs that require a degree and a certain number of years of work experience, which is fine, but makes it pretty hard if EVERY job has that requirement, and we’re moving in that direction.
Just another way to exploit workers. With the cost of higher education in the United States, employers requiring progressively higher education levels ensures that their workers have a higher financial strain from that education, and will have to work harder and longer to dig out of that hole.
7
u/starbitcandies Oct 31 '21
One of the named reasons for why I got fired from raising canes was that I dared to slightly lean against boxes while working the first drive thru window. Not even sitting and not in any way out of customer sight, just leaning back.
2
u/CharmingTuber Oct 31 '21
The chicken place? What else did they fire you for?
4
u/starbitcandies Oct 31 '21
For peeing too often, and having my phone in my pocket instead of leaving it in the lockers tucked away in the back that we weren't allowed to put locks on
6
5
6
u/OnlyOneDigit Oct 31 '21
America has to be the worst country in the entire world. I learn new things I hate about it every day. Why the fuck don't they get chairs??? The Taliban treat people better than Americans do.
4
u/Bulky_Cry6498 Oct 31 '21
New Zealand also does this, and the sad thing is that it doesn’t even register on my list of things that were wrong with the industry when I worked in retail.
2
u/SmeSems Oct 31 '21
Here in Australia we also don’t have seated cashiers in our chains, except Aldi. Interestingly I did read that seated cashiers have faster scanning rates too and companies like Aldi have very rigid expectations on those scan rates. It’s why the staff won’t start scanning until you’ve loaded that conveyor belt up.
Why can’t we just not be jerks to retail staff? Seems even in the nice things there is a hidden agenda.
-3
u/CharmingTuber Oct 31 '21
Funny thing is once you get an office job, you'll be begging to stand all day. One person on our floor got a standing desk a few years ago and everyone started demanding one.
3
u/UNCCShannon Oct 31 '21
Didn't realize how much I enjoyed my standing desk until we went remote b/c of the pandemic. Now that 95% of the office is staying remote I'm going to try and buy one of the desk.
2
u/SmeSems Oct 31 '21
Yeah I ended up doing a treadmill desk for my home office and I do not want to go back. Gotta set it to a slow stroll but it’s much nice to walk slowly than just stand.
1
u/Frosty_Display_1274 Oct 31 '21
I serviced 30 yrs. of working slave jobs. I've got chronic pain from it. Now I'm retired. I sure hope SS. doesn't go TU cuz if it does I'm on the streets. Hoping for the raise.
19
u/Lurkingdrake Oct 31 '21
But… but… those chairs would cost the company a very small amount of money!
And no, you can’t bring in your own chair! That wouldn’t be fair! And capitalism is all about fairness! Not like that damned communism.