They Didn’t Pay, He Didn’t Stay
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“My last job forced everyone to come in 15 minutes early before the store opened at 10 am, and your employment was threatened if you weren’t there for this 9:45 ‘meeting.’ However, we only got paid to work from 10-6. Say what you will about it just being 15 minutes, but that really adds up over the course of the year to around $1,000+ a year that was unaccounted for.
I quit because of tiny problems like this throughout the establishment, but no one else really fought back on this rule, while I thought it was ridiculous.”
More Than Illegal, That’s Just Dangerous
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“At the place I worked, victims or witnesses to a crime on our property were not allowed to call 911. If there’s a crime committed there, anything ranging from a small petty theft up to attack or murder, we were to notify our direct manager first (even if the manager isn’t working that day). Then that manager was to call his or her manager who then called the security office about the incident, and together they decided whether or not to call the police.
Thankfully, this hasn’t happened. Yet.”
This Place Didn’t Understand How Timecards Work
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“This isn’t my current workplace but my last one. We’d fill out time sheets up to four weeks in advance and were told to just put eight hours a day in each day. If we worked more than eight hours a day, which happened frequently, we were told that the timesheet said eight, so that’s what we were paid for.
Anybody who refused to fill them out ahead of time usually got let go pretty soon thereafter.”
That Law Seems Flawed
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“As a bartender, we’re not allowed to call 911… Each call counts as half a point against our beverage license.
If we need officer assistance, we have to call the non-emergency line. I’ve heard of real emergencies happening, people needing real medical attention, and the bartender getting fired for calling 911.”
How Was This Rule Reviewed And Approved SIX Times?!
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“This was the assembly procedure written for the optical components of a space based telescope for the USAF. It stated as a rule, ‘All optical assembly must be done in the unclothed.’ That line made it through three contractor reviews, 2 USAF reviews, and one NASA review. So when time came for the assembly, the one young lady on a team mostly populated with old guys from Switzerland said, ‘Heck no.’
The procedure was redlined and signed off VERY quickly.”
Is It Unlimited If It’s Forbidden?
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“We have ‘unlimited PTO’ for our group but we’ve been warned never to use it. When layoff time rolls around, they pick the person who has used the most PTO so calling in sick twice a year could cost you your job.
They also make us make up our hours to reach 40 when we are sick, even though we’re salary. I doubt that’s illegal but come flu season, it spreads through our office like wildfire because no one is allowed sick days.
That Charge Would Hurt More Than The Injury
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“If you get injured at my work while on the clock, you must see the in-house medical staff and have a pee test before leaving, but they charge you $500 if you see the in-house medical staff.
I’m pretty sure that’s not legal and I know loads of other employees who don’t report injuries because of not wanting to deal with the $500 charge.”
The Uniform Inspection Was Getting Too Personal
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“For a while where I worked, all female employees had to report to the bosses room after closing. Turns out the boss liked eyeing up the girls. He made us stand from youngest to oldest and then moved in real close (not touching but almost. You could hear him smell you) and then scream about how your uniform is messed up. This lasted a few weeks before someone’s father came in red-faced and angry. We all had to fill out forms, when it happened, and who else was there.
Long story short, it was a bad time at McDonald’s.”
It Was A Questionable Business Plan
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“I work in sales and we’re trained to flat out lie to our customers. We were told that if what we’re doing saves the customer money in any way, we are to find an excuse to terminate the sale or we lose our jobs.
Now I get we’re supposed to be earning money for the company, but shouldn’t your customers at least occasionally benefit from something? I mean even when we have sales and promotions, there’s some fine print that ends up hurting them.”
He Asked Them To Follow The Law And Their Response Was Annoying To Say The Least
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“A place that I used to work for did something that’s 100% illegal. Illinois has a unique law requiring companies to inform employees how their biometric data is to be used, stored, and deleted after they quit prior to collecting it from the employee. This company collected everyone’s fingerprints for the new fingerprint-reading time clocks. But they never bothered to inform the employees about the previously mentioned info and obtain their consent. Someone (not me) brought up how this is required by law and how the company was breaking it. He refused to do so until they went through the proper process. After they did what was required by law, he’d consent to them collecting his fingerprint. The company treated him like a troublemaker and only acquiesced to doing what was required by law after him standing his ground for a month.
But for every other single employee, the company illegally collected their biometric data in the form of a fingerprint.”
That’s An Ironic Way To Lose Business
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“Many moons ago, I worked for a software development company. Every single piece of their software was pirated. This was back long before subscriptions and/or calling home to verify serials. So it was easy to install on multiple machines using one serial number.
The ironic thing was is that they got really butt hurt when they found out that the software that we designed was being pirated.”
It’s Called PAID Time Off For A Reason…
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“The last job I worked at was a school. We had part-year (teachers) and year-round employees (Operations staff) but the year-round employees technically got PTO hours that were equivalent to the time the part-year employees had off (something like 350 hours). We weren’t allowed to use our PTO hours and they were just converted and paid out as a bonus at the end of the summer. I was the IT person and was a year-round employee. We had some leadership changes and I put in two-months notice because I didn’t like where the school and its leadership were headed but I wanted to give them time to find and train a new person before I left. I had about 200 hours of accrued PTO at that time. The school network tried to pull one over on me and said that I would just lose those PTO hours when I quit. Apparently, I was the first person to question that and fight them on it. Eventually, they caved and kept me on the payroll for a month and a half after I left because they didn’t have a system for paying out PTO mid-year.
The turnover rate was really high, 60 something people quit just at my school in the three years I was working there. There were only one or two people left from the original staff after five years at another school in the network. And I was the first person to get a PTO payout…”
The Rule A Bar Definitely Shouldn’t Bend
“I used to work at a bar and a girl came in who was underage. I asked for ID and what not, to no avail. Eventually, she and the women she came in with were thrown out. They managed to find my boss who was on a night out. He then came to find me and explained that this girl worked at another bar in town and that I could serve her, as it’s bar policy in town to serve other staff even if we know they’re too young… I told the boss I refused and I wasn’t going to let any of the other staff serve her, either. I was running the bar that night and threatened to walk out, so if I left they wouldn’t have a license holder so they would need to close.
My boss lost that argument. I was so mad from the entire situation. “
Why’d They Try To Pull This On Lawyers?
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“I worked at a law firm where the attorneys were salary and support staff was hourly. They required ALL employees to clock out anytime they went to the restroom. Attorneys didn’t care because they were salary and the support staff didn’t object because they didn’t want to risk the jobs. There was a young female attorney who’d recently started. The big bosses, of course, didn’t mention the bathroom rule during the interview process. During orientation, they mentioned it and she laughed because she thought they were joking. Within a couple of weeks, HR approached her because they said they’ve noticed she was not clocking out for her restroom breaks. She tried to explain very calmly that 1) it’s illegal and 2) what’s the point, shes salary. They kept insisting that she has too.
All of a sudden she bellowed, ‘You don’t need to know how long my poops take!’ They didn’t bother her again.”
They Tried Covering Their Tracks…
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“One of the sales jobs I used to have, if you did not meet a quota you were fired (as it is with most sales jobs) The thing is, my buddy who was let go was forced to sign this paper that basically said they warned you beforehand if you did not meet a quota, then after that you would be fired. He signed it, they let him go.
Signing that paper on the way out basically just messed with him since he could not get unemployment because he signed a paper that said they warned him in advance, which they did not. I had a slow month shortly after, so they let me go, and I knew the paper was coming and I obviously refused to sign. The two managers basically had a panic attack and said I HAD to sign it.
My exact response, ‘What are you gonna do? Fire me if I don’t?’
And I left. My manager chased me out of the building trying to rescind the firing. My guess is they did not want to pay the fines they would get for having a former employee apply for unemployment.”
So Young, So Naive
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“When I was 15, I worked at a fast food restaurant. The laws in my area didn’t allow me to work past 8 o’clock in the evening because of my age. My shift managers would force me to clean the bathrooms after my 3-8 pm shift was over. If I didn’t clock out before 8, they would change my clock out time with their managerial privileges to make it seem like I had left at the proper time. I didn’t get paid for the extra time I spent cleaning bathrooms. Talking about pay rates was highly frowned upon in that particular restaurant.
I worked there for two years while making barely above minimum wage, and I didn’t even realize that my rate was so low until I mentioned it to my (new, better) shift managers. One last incident was that one of my shift managers harassed me when I was 15. I told my boss, and she was horrified, but the higher-ups dismissed the issue. That sick shift manager quit shortly thereafter.”
Does Payday Even Exist?
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“The last restaurant I worked at, there would be a 35% tip out for all servers that would just go to the owner. Not only that, but some of the servers were just paid regular hourly wages, but still collected tips that yup, went straight to the owner. On top of that, there would be times where you would ask, ‘Hey, where’s my paycheck?’ To which the boss would give you a $20, say he’ll give you another $100 next week, and then the rest a few days later. Then you’d ask again for that week’s paycheck and he’d say something like, ‘Didn’t I just pay you?’
Pretty messed up and I don’t know why I worked there as long as I did.”
The Attire Was Nearly Unattainable
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“I worked at a company where all the women had to wear a ‘uniform.’ Multiple locations, probably close to 125-150 female employees. It consisted of 10 dress shirts, four pairs or pants or skirts and suit jackets in navy, brown, black and grey. They weren’t cheap either. The employer paid $500 and the rest you paid back via payroll deduction usually over a year plus time period. You already have black dress pants? Grey suit? Tough. You have to buy these. There was a schedule for every day of the week and every female employee had to match every other female employee. The male employees? Wear a dress pants, shirt & a tie of their choosing, that was it for them. It felt so archaic and it was so expensive. It felt like discrimination against the females, like we couldn’t be trusted to dress professionally.
I’m so glad I left there. The pieces I did buy that didn’t fall apart were donated.”