There’s No Way This Is Legal
“I work in fast food. Having a convulsive seizure at work isn’t really an option when
1. None of the employees are informed that I even have seizures and look at me like I’m insane during small ones
2. The manager writing me up demands that I move 1000 miles per hour my entire shift knowing I’m disabled and snaps whenever I stand still for more than .2 seconds.”
This Has Holes Galore
“In some context, I work at an airport and I also have a union (Transport Workers Union)
Today I get called to the office, and my supervisors hand me a write-up and a final warning for ‘tardiness’ however there are 3 issues with it.
1. I was told I have 11.5 points but the write-up only has 7 tardies listed on it.
2. There are 6 tardies and 1 absent day. The 6 tardies are all less than 2 minutes. The supervisors told me there is no grace period and if you are even a minute late then that counts as a tardy. I’ve worked here for over a year and never heard of this.
3: I requested to see the sign-in sheets, and more than half of the tardies listed aren’t actually tardies. I was at work on time and even wrote down the correct time I arrived at work. Sometimes I just forget to clock in and other times the machine doesn’t work.
So, 3 of the 6 tardies (excluding the absent day) shouldn’t be listed as tardies because I was at work on time and wrote it down on the sign-in sheet. Instead of changing my clock in time they ignored it and listed it as a tardy instead. They could not tell me how those tardies equal 11.5 points.
Then they told me I actually have more tardies than was listed on the write-up, but it doesn’t make sense why they would exclude those on the write-up itself.
The write-up and the final both state I was notified of the write-ups a few weeks ago, but I was not made aware. I heard rumors I had a write-up and had 3 separate supervisors try to find it but they couldn’t.”
If You Get Hired On The Spot, Run Far Away
“I got an interview for this really nice local specialty store that I will leave unnamed. I interviewed so well, that the management team hired me on the spot.”
That alone is such a massive red flag.
“They were very impressed with my vocational skills and thought I was very thoughtful to the interview questions. They offer me a position that is a step above entry level with keys to the store to start due to my extensive retail experience. I was very excited about this opportunity, to say the least.
A few days into the job, I come to find out that they didn’t hire me for the position they told me about, in fact, they hired me at entry level at minimum wage. I was pissed. I talked to the regional manager to try to figure out what the heck was going on. He explained that I had to start at that position and work my way up. I was pretty upset about this, but this didn’t deter me immediately.
The time came when I was finally put into the system where I could log in and enroll for my health insurance. But because they delayed my start date by 2 weeks, and didn’t give me login access for 2 more weeks had passed, my official start date in the system was over a month before I actually had access to the system to enroll. And as it turns out, the open enrollment period was exactly one month. Who would’ve thought that?”
Yeah, if they hire you on the spot this is the bare minimum of what’s going to happen to you while working there.
“After several calls to HR, I basically got shafted on my medical benefits because I didn’t enroll and there was nothing I could do about it. At this point, I’m feeling pretty taken advantage of but I was still holding out for the promotion I was promised, and just told myself to keep going and hope for the best
As it turns out, this store had no manager. There is however an assistant manager who had taken on the duties and had been doing his best for quite some time. He was really honest, straight to the point, and understanding of the other employees. I decided I was going to give my all for the guy because he was actually pretty cool. I put the axe to the grindstone and just started doing my best and finishing tasks faster than anyone expected me to. I even went above and beyond and organized the entire stockroom. The assistant manager made me feel valuable and I was proud of that.
At some point, I got COVID and needed to stay home for a while. I learned about a COVID payment program to help keep us afloat when we get sick. When I got better and came back to work, I was told I wasn’t approved for the COVID pay, or that I wasn’t working long enough to be eligible for it. Yet another shafting from management. I had to fight for months just to get the money I was told I would get.
After a long while of doing my hardest to make the store clean, organized, and learning all the different systems like tagging and write-offs, I was finally in consideration of the position I was promised when I began, only a few months into the job. I was feeling good. Around that same time, they hired a new manager for the store. She at first seemed to be pretty casual, I hoped to prove to this new manager that I can be depended on, and prove my worth. Not long after her taking over the store, my co-workers started dropping like flies. I would talk to them and they’d say all the backward garbage this manager was doing to them. Cutting hours, making her own schedule to come into the store several hours before the store opened, when the usual earliest time anyone was in was 30 minutes before open. She would do absolutely nothing in those hours, and leave all the hard work to us. Our opener quit within a week of dealing with her because she cut her hours so much she couldn’t pay rent.
Not only was our new manager lazy, but we all also found out she had basically no management experience and was hired from outside the company, despite several people who were qualified applied who worked in the store, who knew the procedures already. So she would come to the entry-level people, me included, to ask us how to do her job. I can’t describe how painful it is to have to tell a higher-up how to do their job. She also stirred up drama for no reason, talking about us behind our backs and she was only there for a couple of weeks at that point, which caused another 2 people to leave.
So this manager is 3 weeks into her new position, lost us 3 co-workers who were great at their job, and then basically comes to me and asks me to postpone my pre-planned vacation by 2 days because there was a staff shortage. That week I worked 9 consecutive 8-hour shifts to cover for them, all while hearing her talk about how much she was doing with the low staffing and how we should basically be grateful for her help staying 2 extra hours and coming in on one of her days off.
I was burnt the hell out at this point to the extent I want to explode on any customer or co-worker that comes my way sideways. But my vacation was soon, and I’d get to relax.
On the 7th day of my nine consecutive eight-hour shifts, I finally got a discussion with the regional manager about my promotion. I finally was getting the position I was working my butt off for with a whole $1.50 an hour raise. Do you know when they say you can negotiate your wages? I had no say in the matter because he used his ‘spreadsheet’ to be impartial. So I was once again shafted, and then had more duties to boot. This promotion would go into effect the following Sunday, which was a day after I left for my vacation.
On the 8th day, I got into an argument with a co-worker and had to leave for the rest of my shift because there was no way I was going to be able to be in there alone with her after that argument.
I got a call from the manager, with some thinly veiled comment that because I ‘abandoned the store’ there would ‘possibly be repercussions.’
Basically, I took that as I wasn’t going to get the promotion I had been working so hard for months. I was destroyed, I was literally crying my eyes out on the kitchen floor because I felt I just lost this big break because of some nonsense.
I called off on the 9th day because I couldn’t mentally handle going into work.
Finally, I was able to go on vacation but now I had this nightmare looming over my head that when I got back I wasn’t going to have that position. The whole week was ruined because of this. So much I didn’t know what I was going to do when I went back.
When I returned to work, I went to the pc, and looked at my title and pay, and sure enough, she didn’t update it. Still minimum wage, still entry-level position. I ask why I wasn’t promoted like I was promised. There was the manager and the regional there, and basically, she played it off like she ‘forgot.’ I wouldn’t be promoted until the following Sunday because she wanted to be petty, and I’m still a mess about it.
At some point during the 9-day week before my vacation, I was asked if I could work a shift for her. I agreed basically under duress because she was guilt-tripping everyone. Well, I completely forgot about it because of how stressed and worn out I was that entire week.
The day rolled around and I woke up to 10 missed calls from my manager. I called back and she chews me out about it. It was an honest mistake, and I went in anyway but later than they had scheduled me. I got there and she chewed me out about not showing up and counted several of the days I was sick and unable to work as no-shows. She decided she was going to write me up because of that mistake after literally working 4 extra shifts for her, staying longer to finish tasks for her, and coming in on-call for her.
I was shaking in anger at this point, but I gritted my teeth and bared it for 3 hours before she went out for lunch. And finally, as if she wanted to really put the final nail in the coffin, she told me I couldn’t park where I parked and told me to move, because customers need to park there, despite being a reasonable distance out. As soon as she left for her lunch break, I walked to my assistant manager, gave him my keys, and told him I’m tired of this nonsense and I’m not coming back. No 2 weeks, no nothing. I had so much animosity flowing through me towards that woman that day I had an eye twitch for a few days after.”
This Has To Be A Human Rights Violation
“I took a week-long, long-overdue (nearly two years overdue) vacation from July 29 at 5:00 pm until August 8 at 8:00 am. The week before I went on this vacation (which was approved and everyone knew about for months) my Boss’ Boss emailed me and asked for help in planning a surprise party to celebrate National Professional Engineers day (August 3). I told her I was glad to order the gifts and make sure a space was reserved but other than that I would be out of town.
She seemingly ignored this because as the week progressed she continued to email me about the party. I ordered gifts. I reserved the room. I reminded her again that I would not be in town for any of the other tasks for planning the party. She responded with an okay but continued to ask all week. At the very end of the day on July 29, she asked me if I had ordered the cake and supplies for the party itself. I was in a meeting until 5 pm and did not see the email until I was at home — by then it was around 8 pm.
On Monday, August 1 at exactly 9 am, she texted my personal cell phone to ask about the cake and decorations. I told her once again that I was out of town and that I was unable to take care of those things. She answered by telling me that she knew that but had also expected me to have handed those responsibilities to another staff member.
I am the Admin for four different departments in our city. Engineering, Engineering plan review, traffic, and stormwater. There was no one else to hand this to — especially since my co-workers are all the people who were meant to be ‘surprised.’
She was obviously beyond furious and told me ‘Well, I hope you have a great vacation.’
On August 8, at 4 pm, I was pulled into my boss’s office. There was another managing director there. I was given a ‘verbal warning,’ a written warning, a ‘failure to perform,’ and a reprimand followed by a Professional Improvement Plan — a PIP.
I have never EVER been in trouble at work in my entire life, let alone during my 7 years with the City. And there I was, with every kind of trouble I can get all at once.
My PIP stated that I am insubordinate, do not work as a team player, and that I complain too much about my pay. We are supposed to have yearly reviews that come with a 2% raise. I have not had a review since October 2020. And, my instructions were that I had until August 31 at 5 pm to write a complete desk manual for my position.
I’ve spent the last month putting together a very comprehensive manual, but every time I show my boss the bar is moved and more has to be added. This thing is over 400 pages long at this point. And I’m not stupid, I know these are made to train my replacement.
On Tuesday of last week, I finally sent in a 7-page report to HR with 11 documents filled with emails and text messages as documentation.
On Wednesday, my boss called me into his office for our now daily one on ones where he asks for every single task I do in minute detail (I created a spreadsheet and have been taking very careful notes). He pulled out all of my sheets from my write-ups and told me he was proud of how well I’ve turned everything around and how I’m doing a great job — yadda yadda. But, that his boss is still frustrated by my inaction in planning the party, and that will probably stay on my record.
On Thursday, I completed (to my knowledge then) the manual. I showed him the work and his response was, ‘This looks great! Keep working on it. I just don’t understand why it’s in landscape mode. Everything is supposed to be in portrait mode… but okay?’
That same day, I was also told that I am no longer allowed to participate in extra activities at work. I must be at my desk at all moments except for lunch. I was an officer in our Toastmaster’s group and had to let my team know I would no longer be able to participate.
On Monday of this week, he told me that he is going to need me to start working as the assistant to another city department because ‘you’ve shown that you can get a lot of work done very quickly.’
Today, I am supposed to have my desk manual completed by EOD. I was given another job to add.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of what I’ve been going through. HR has been no help. I’ve been ostracized and removed from so many activities that made me love my job. I have to account for every moment including bathroom breaks.
I’m exhausted. My mental health has suffered to an extreme. I know they want me to quit, but even though I have been putting in tons of applications everywhere I’m not getting any bites. At this point, they are going to have to fire me.
I’m devastated and heartbroken and angry, but I’ve been nothing but exceptionally pleasant at work. I make $38,000 a year.”
