Appearances can be deceiving, especially in the corporate world.
Employees on Reddit and Quora share the most corrupt thing they've seen their employer do. Content has been edited for clarity.
Those Are Some Interesting “Errors”
“One time when I was a chef in college, I worked 14 days straight, with half of those days being 12-hour days. This all fell in one pay period, too. It was rough, but it was summer and I was gushing over the amount of overtime I was about to get. It came out to like over 70 hours overtime. I was supposed to get almost an additional $1000 on my paycheck. I calculated the math with tax and everything and couldn’t wait to pick up my paycheck the next week for that pay period.
I picked it up, and the paycheck was quite larger than I’m used to, given I normally only worked 25 hours a week, but there was ZERO overtime on it. It was short almost a thousand bucks. I got to the HR office the next day (it was located at a different casino) and asked, and they said, ‘Yeah so in Nevada, you only qualify for overtime if you average 40 hours a week normally.’
That sounded like nonsense to me, but I asked my mom who used to run finances for our family business, and she says that IS in fact 100% nonsense. She pulled up the statute online, and it clearly said if you exceed eight hours in a day, you get overtime. It said nothing about a weekly average.
So printed that info out and drove right back down to the HR office, and showed it to them. The lady at the desk who just told me that lie called out the head of HR. She would frequent the different locations to check in with people and was always nice, but you could always tell she was shady as heck. They both seemed to get very nervous and in a stuttering voice, ‘Okay we will reevaluate.’
I never heard anything or got any apology, but when the next paycheck came, the exact amount of overtime I calculated was put on that paycheck down to the penny.
I told some of the other guys in the kitchen what happened, and apparently, the family who owned the casino our restaurant was located in was known for pulling stunts like this. Making ‘accounting errors,’ knowing a lot of people who do direct deposit don’t even look at their paystubs. Funny how these accounting ‘errors’ always ended up in saving the company money, and never gave the employee extra cash.
A server no more than a few months later had the same exact thing happen to him. How shady.”
Such A Toxic Environment
“My girlfriend worked at a small coffee shop that did a ton of shady stuff, but no one reported it because it was a small family business. They treated her so poorly though, breaking many health and wage laws my girlfriend tried to make up for.
She had been there for many months and created a program for new employees in training. She had basically taken over most managerial responsibilities because the owner’s close family friend (or mom, I can’t remember) who was the manager did nothing except yell at the kids who worked there about random things. This place was a cool community spot, but they treated their employees horribly (mostly young adults in college) to ‘teach them’ about life or hard work or something. Anyway, she was getting paid less than $5 an hour and the tips they made were all used to fix things at the coffee shop, so the workers rarely saw them.
My girlfriend was having a lot of trouble with mobility and pain, but still powered through the best she could during her shift. If she didn’t, then the manager would scream at her if she ever sat down, meanwhile other workers would be on their phone all the time, take long breaks, not show up. My girlfriend was an intensely hard worker and had a super high pain tolerance despite her limbs constantly dislocating on the job. She found out she had elders danlos syndrome along with severe heart problems and a few other big diagnoses’ and her doctor told her keeping up that level of activity at that job was causing her to decline at a rapid rate, and could cause permanent damage.
Although she had had issues with the manager before (who would constantly scream, push, and blame her for things that SHE -the manager- did wrong) my girlfriend decided to let the job know about her condition. She made to mention she could keep working as long as she was allowed to take breaks and pick up phone calls from her dad and doctors (phones were not allowed, and the manager was constantly taking her phone from her for no reason). She tried talking to the owners because she knew her manager wouldn’t take it well. They said she would have to talk to the manager, and she needed to stop acting so sick all the time, and she has no reason to be afraid of her. This woman had literally pushed my girlfriend over one time and was constantly getting in her face and screaming at her for random stuff, targeting her for others’ mistakes, etc. She was terrified but put on a brave face. She talked to her manager in a calm collected voice, but mentioning her needs set the manager off. I was there for that fight and it was horrible. Several customers tried to intervene. In the end, my girlfriend was crying, and told not to show back up for work. This shop was literally dying before she arrived and she put her health on the line for it. Two days later, they gave her a call and told her she was fired for instigating arguments amongst the staff. Never have I seen someone so dedicated and excellent at their job treated so poorly.
In the end, several employees quit after my girlfriend was fired in solidarity. The coffeehouse is still horrible, still high turnover rate, they still abuse their employees, but my girlfriend got an amazing job at a PT office where they can meet her needs more effectively and give her time off to take care of herself. I still go to the coffee shop to talk to my friends who are still being abused there, giving them under the counter tips when I can and I never buy anything there.”
Did He Actually Do It?
“I work in a salon where we are all booth renters under one salon and business owner of that salon. She perpetually violates our rights, as we are independent contractors.
When I first started, I started as a commission employee. It was my first job and didn’t know the lay of the tax land. But, I knew she was shady when she immediately told me we’d fill out no tax forms with me as an employee, and she was going to pay me under the table. She said I’d also have to file taxes as an independent contractor whilst not having that kind of business license or having actually set myself up with the state to pay sales tax to them. She skimmed off the top constantly, and her taxes are very much vague guesstimates. I became an independent contractor about a year later and did all my due diligence to cover myself in all legal aspects.
While all this is run-of-the-mill shadiness, the big act was actually what happened prior to me working there and the reason I got hired to begin with.
I live in a small town and the owner of the salon is my neighbor. The cosmetology school I went to was also in this town and of course, all the cosmetologists in this town know each other. I’m not originally from this town. I started school the day I moved there, and shorty met the salon owner after I started. After talking, she asked me to work for her as soon as I graduated. She frequently asked me to come and work for her before I graduated, which is illegal on its own.
The beauty school I attended was owned by a woman who was a stylist and her mom and son, both cosmetologists also were instructors there. Her son also worked at my now current salon as an independent contractor. We were close, and as I neared the end of school, the salon owner doubled down on wanting to hire me. So, the son and I would chat about his workplace. On lunch the days he’d work at the salon, I’d drive him to and from work for lunch with us at the school. We were friends. I was the first to meet his boyfriend when he moved out here and we’d get drinks after school/ work together occasionally.
One day, he came to school in the middle of the day, with no warning, which was odd. He asked me to do his hair for him and while I did, he told me the owner fired him for stealing. It was rough, and I didn’t know what to say because about five minutes before he’d gotten to the school, the salon owner had texted me and asked me to come speak with her after my classes were done for the day. He swore up and down he didn’t steal. However, he was an ‘exaggerative’ type. Small white lies here and there to make himself more interesting and he wasn’t the most reliable. But I didn’t think him to be a thief.
After school, I went to the salon to speak with the owner. She offered me his job on the spot. It very much seemed as though she fired him to make room for me, as there were limited spots available for renters. I gave her the opportunity to explain the theft claims.
While everyone is an independent contractor for their services, products are sold through the salon, ie; her. This means she keeps money at the salon for the contractors to make changes with when people come in to purchase products. She claimed money kept coming up short and so she’d set up some sort of system to see if money was missing when it was only him there and it was. So she fired him. She had no sure-fire proof that it wasn’t one of the other contractors.
Needless to say, I took the job. I know, I know, SO many red flags, not including so many clients from the school who knew her telling me not to work for her. But I was young and didn’t know any better at the time.
She’s since confessed to me she doesn’t know if he actually stole anything, but suspects one of the other girls who work there (that didn’t like him) set him up. She ended up not getting along with the owner and left on her own.
Unfortunately, and by my own fault, he distanced himself from me after I took the job and his boyfriend would no longer speak to me. When I have seen him, he’s been adamant that he never stole anything and begged me to tell that to the owner or ask her to speak to him. He doesn’t want his job back and ended up getting a great job teaching since.”
A Bully Never Grows Up
“My most recent employer gave me the job with the premise she would be stepping down. She liked my education and experience, and she would have me take over eventually. She was super on our butts about everything, yet had no idea how to do the actual work. She also constantly had her phone going off loud and with flashing lights yet while I was dealing with a broken foot, my dog going through chemo, and family troubles (where my family lives 12 hours away), I was not allowed to have my phone on me.
Two other girls quit, and she knew I was beginning to become unhappy (because I saw how she treated them), and she said she was going to make me assistant manager. But still wouldn’t let me have my phone close to me, even with everything going on. I had written a whole report up for her of things I thought could benefit the place, and she agreed.
Until she actually read the list two hours later. She and her husband back me into a corner to fire me, telling me they never promised me the position and I was completely wrong and threatened to call the cops on me (I was told later on she had said the same exact thing, promising a management position to two other girls, but never actually stepped down).
Now I don’t even like having to travel in that town, but I can’t let that woman have power over me. The new job I’m at treats me so much better. Don’t settle folks. Especially in this job market.”
The Books Weren’t Adding Up
“I worked for a couple that owned four restaurants. The husband was pretty good about being there. He would step in to help out if began going askew. The wife, not so much. She would only come in to eat lunch for free, berate the wait staff, and in general make difficult situations almost impossible.
She would, however, come in on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at seven or eight am to do the books for the previous day. Our busiest days being Thursday through Sunday night ($3000.00 in sales or greater). She would then go to the cash register the next morning and perform the ‘X’ out, and peruse that. Then she would start (secretly) voiding one sale after another, after another, after another. She would, after voiding anywhere from $500.00 to as much as $1500.00 in sales, then perform the ‘Z’ out function. Guess which register tape she kept and which tape she tossed? Granted, her husband knew about this because he would do the same thing but kept his ‘take’ below $3000.00. The cash from the vanished sales went right into the pockets of the owners.
The galling part of this stunt was by doing it, they were throwing off the profit and loss numbers. The restaurant would use product and be staffed for a $2000.00 plus night but the ‘books’ said we only did 1K to3K in sales. Thus wrecking the percentages that management (me) and supervisory employees’ bonuses were based on. You know, not to mention, the tax ramifications.
Why didn’t I ever say anything? The restaurants were their businesses, I didn’t want to lose my job, and I didn’t want my friends and associates to lose their jobs.”
Yeah, That’s Kind Of A Big Problem
“So I started as the Quality Manager of a company that does material processing for aerospace and defense organizations. I stumbled across an incorrect processing method that violated the specification. The processing method we were using could cause sudden failure of the component. The way I found this is the periodic testing we were required to do for ensuring the prevention of sudden failure had routinely failed, but the customer was never notified. So we had the wrong process, and the process we used wasn’t in compliance. We had been working with this part for probably 20 years. I notified the owner of the organization and they wanted us to try to find a way to just change to the correct process without getting us in trouble.
The problem was the correct process created a visibly different condition. I met with the customer with the intention of working out something, and when we met and I mentioned the part, they excitedly wanted to show me where they were assembled. The part literally held together dangerous materials. Like, it was the primary connection point between dangerous items and their storage/transportation. This was the part at sudden risk of failure.
I went back to work, told the owner, and they again wanted to find a way to get around it.
‘Well it hasn’t failed yet, so I’m not going to ruin this family business because of it,’ I was told.
I told him I was leaving that day, and I expected them to take the correct action in addressing this problem.”
The Company Tried To Be Sneaky
“I worked for a company that switched me from hourly to salary to avoid paying overtime. They sold it as ‘We have this project to catch up on, but you’ll be able to take more time off once it’s done.’
Okay fine, we got through the project, which surprise, lead to another OT project. They insisted I punch a clock and I was never allowed to leave early because ‘it would damage the morale of the other workers who have to stay (because they were hourly).’ They ended up firing one of my team members without input from me and I got all the extra work ‘because I was so good and efficient.’ Long story short, they were treating me as if I was hourly, but telling me I was salary. I ended up finding a new job and filing a complaint with the Department of Labor who went through all of their records and ended up awarding me almost 10k in back pay. The company closed down less than a year later.”
He Was Tipped Off
“One of the employees was being blatantly harassed by the manager. Guy got fed up and called HR. He told me he was stepping out to lunch and he was going to call them. He walks outside on the phone, gets in his car, and pulls out.
Not even five minutes later, I heard the boss’s phone ring. He used to always answer and talk on his speaker. He answered and I heard the lady say, ‘hey, manager, just a heads-up. We have a driver of yours on the other line right now issuing a formal complaint against you.’
He took it off the speaker and closed his office door.
I know HR isn’t truly there to help you, it’s there to help the company, but that completely blew me away. He was still on the phone issuing a complaint and they called the manager and warned him.
The driver got fired for ‘poor performance’ a week later.”
A Very Valuable Lesson
“When I was 28 years old, I was a stockbroker at Bear Stearns, then UBS. One of my biggest mistakes was leaving Bear Stearns to move to UBS.
At the time, Bear Stearns was a terrific firm, in many ways akin to Goldman Sachs. UBS offered me a large check to transfer my book of business, however, and I took it. It would not be the first time I would make a bad decision over money.
My clients at UBS included professional baseball players and hedge fund managers. One year into my five-year contract at UBS, I learned one of my hedge fund manager clients was breaking the law.
How did I know?
When he transferred his account to UBS, the hedge fund had roughly $6 million dollars under management. Six months later, through horrific trading, he had lost all of the money.
My role was not to recommend any trades, but simply execute the trades on an unsolicited basis. I would spend a good portion of the day executing trades on his behalf. Within two months, this account was generating about $100,000 a month in production.
Getting back to how I knew. After he lost the $6 million, he successfully raised many millions more. Well, no logical investor in their right mind would invest money into a hedge fund if they knew the manager had lost every penny.
Instead of addressing this troubling discrepancy, I, along with my colleagues at UBS, turned the other way while the hedge fund manager continued to raise more money. We reasoned that since we were not the one soliciting the assets or trades, we would not be held accountable when the losses continued.
The truth was we wanted the gravy train of commissions to continue. Rather than fire the client, as an honest broker would have done, I schemed with my colleagues to ensure we would not endure any fallout when the losses continued. We created disclosure documents to try to protect us from any liability.
Eventually, my willful blindness and turning the other way to the millions of dollars in losses gave way to my attending meetings where I flat out heard the hedge fund managers’ misrepresentations to investors.
I allowed it. I did not correct his lies, despite knowing of the losses. Instead, I gave the impression my client was a successful hedge fund manager. I gave him credence he had not earned. In so doing, I committed securities fraud.
In the end, I was punished. After a 3 1/2 year investigation, I eventually self surrendered to federal prison for 18 months. It was not until prison that I realized how my actions negatively impacted so many people.
In retrospect, I know that I made shortsighted decisions as a stockbroker. I was driven to make money and I easily rationalized that since I was not managing the money, I was not responsible.
The truth is I was raised to know right from wrong. I always knew that facilitating fraud was wrong. While some people in prison are not guilty, I was not one of them. I absolutely deserved to be held accountable.
I have often been asked what I would do differently. Easy. In retrospect, I would’ve given greater thought to how every choice and action I made would influence my life in one, three, five, 10, and 50 years from now. I would’ve given thought to how it would influence my unborn children. Instead, I was shortsighted and didn’t fully understand how each choice would impact the rest of my life. I paid the price, and deservedly so.”
Not A Good Place To Work
“I worked for a small town car dealership that sold Ford and Nissan. It was a disaster.
Salesmen were paid an ‘allowance’ of $250 a week regardless of sales. Yes, that is less than minimum wage. If you didn’t make a sale, you would be given extra to hit the $290 ($7.25 x 40) required by law for a 40-hour workweek. Sales commissions would first have to ‘payback’ the allowance before you actually were allowed to profit off a sale. Later on, this dealer went to a ‘commission only’ setup. Didn’t make a sale for a week, you were paid nothing. In either case, you only were allowed 10 no-sale weeks per year, or you were fired.
A quick explanation of the commission setup: New cars were 15 percent of the dealer profit over cost. Used cars were 20 percent of the profit over cost, or $200, whichever was higher. On new cars, if discounts, leases, etc., brought the price down to near cost, you got messed up.
To some, that may sound promising, but this is a dealer that would rarely sell over 80 cars a month, with no less than eight salesmen, and the sales manager had preferences for certain salesmen, taking leads away from others and funneling it to these few. In a normal month, one guy would get nearly 30 sales, two more would get 10-15, and the rest (including me) suffered.
Used cars never had a price listed on them on the lot. You would have to talk to a salesman, who was forced by the manager to have you fill out a credit application before knowing the price. Submit the credit app, salesman comes back with a payment plan matrix, still not revealing the true price. The customer would have to argue to heck and back with the sales manager to get final price papers for outside financing or a cash sale. If the customer was trading, the sales manager would hide the appraisal price from the customer, just like the purchase price. They felt all the customers needed to see where their monthly payment numbers. Most customers wouldn’t learn the actual numbers until they had agreed on the sale and went to the finance office to sign papers.
More often than not, depending on the overall mood of sales management that day, they would not hesitate to write in a ‘market adjustment’ markup on new cars or inflate the price of used cars by a few thousand before revealing numbers to a customer.”