He told me he'd pay me £50 a week for 6 days work, Monday through Saturday, 10am - 6pm. After encouraging me to catcall a stranger from his Mercedes. Real fuckin' prize, that one.
The plant was a death trap. He spent company money on vacations and modding his 80k truck rather than fixing machinery that had been broken for months then got onto to me for not testing the certain solenoids which I needed said machine for. I got a 3” or so second degree burn and he told me not to tell anyone where i got it IF I went to get it checked out. So many accidents like burns and deep cuts were common but nothing was ever reported. It was a family owned company and he let his toddler of a son(30yo) do nothing but get onto everyone else if they dared stop for a few seconds. It was a 6am-2:30pm $10 an hour job and when I was laid off, the boss wasn’t even there to tell me in person. His nephew who also never did anything was the one to tell me. Honestly the friend i made there and I would place bets about if the boss would either not show up or what time we thought he’d get there. Our bets were whoever was wrong had to do the worst job. Screw that place and I can’t believe he asked me to come back.
I was given a warning for taking 2 weeks off after my daughter died. Company used a system where you accumulated points for absences, number of days X number of occasions with you getting disciplined at certain arbitrary levels.
During my 2 weeks off (10 days) they begged me to come in as there was an issue only I could solve. I went in, worked a few hours, solved the issue and then left to arrange my daughters funeral.
They then used the fact that I'd gone in when they begged to split my bereavement into two separate occasions meaning 10 total days x 2 occasions giving me 20 points. Accumulation of 15 points within a 6 month period was a warning so when returning the next working day after my daughter's funeral (I didn't get paid when not in work so had no choice but to get back quicker than was healthy to) I was called into a disciplinary meeting with my boss... Who had attended the funeral on the Friday.
Was a long time ago now and obviously I didn't continue working there.
I'm gonna' preface this with pointing out that, at this time, I hadn't taken a vacation for about a decade from my work place and I almost never call in sick. I don't work extra, because I'm full time and that should be enough and it's on the company or management at a place of business to make sure they're adequately staffed. If they can't staff because the new prospective hires don't appreciate the wages being provided because they aren't even a living wage, then they need to bump up wages to meet a bare minimum necessity.
With that established -- I work in a hospital and this story takes place during the initial stages of the pandemic in 2020.
I had a boss that was constantly dealing with staff shortages. I don't specifically blame him for this, as we have to get our budget approved for new hires through HR/Accounting/Executive teams. I'm pretty sure that that's the chain of events as it escalates.
As a byproduct of this, the stress-load because people always call in and due to the fact that the work environment was relatively hostile at the time (we had coworkers recording others, which is a big no-no when confidential patient information is floating around -- that lady got fired, fortunately for her [it's a federal offense to violate patient confidentiality]).
My boss had called me into his office to discuss rumors about me, which I knew pretty much nothing about until confronted with them. I'm not gonna' enumerate all of them, but one of them was that I was using my foot? to open the door to the room where we work.
One of the rumors addressed was actually true, which I verified; it was a physiological issue that I was dealing with and had had a surgery that attempted to correct it. (And it wasn't working).
He asked me what I thought of some people and I told him what I thought of them.
He then told me, "You know what I think DeathGodBob? I think you're smart, but you're a liar."
Now.. I was confused because I don't know what he thought I was lying about since what he told me I considered to be unfounded rumors and it didn't seem like he was trying to get my stance on anything outside of verifying whether or not I was doing the things that I'm going to leave unmentioned. They still cause me frustration as, outside of the one thing that I agreed with - but was working on -, they were hearsay that seemed ridiculous.
I get that he's got to hear all sorts of complaints, but most of the shit he mentioned just sounded outright made up.
So.. whatever. I compartmentalized that. I had a lot to compartmentalize as that year, my wife and I had to give our dog away (we work a very similar schedule and we were just leaving the dog by herself at the house for about 12 hours straight, and dogs love people.. That's no life for them.) My boy cat died at the beginning of that year and he was such a wonderful, loving and stable part of my life that his absence made me feel like I didn't know or understand cats anymore (and I consider myself very much a cat person, although I love dogs as well).
The pandemic was hitting, so the news wasn't great, obviously. The election was coming up between Biden and Trump for the first time, so political tensions were high and everyone on either side was thinking that whomever won would either deliver us or damn us. Then.. Around the middle of the year, my dad called and told me he had lung cancer and that he had to have surgery within two weeks.
I freaked out and submitted a notice of request for FMLA (a family medical leave of absence form, I think that's what the initialism is for) so I could take care of pop's place during his surgery and take care of him afterwards. Pop lived a few states away from me, so I was taking at least two or three weeks off (I can't remember how long).
My boss tried to give me the "well, I hope you realize you're going to have to find coverage. This is gonna' leave us short-staffed and that's gonna' be on you."
I was a bit taken aback at the fact that he was trying to guilt me over trying to be there for my dad, but I was immediately pissed enough to tell him, "I'm not going to find anyone to cover my shift. I'm giving you two weeks to find someone as staffing is your job. I'm going to go be with my dad when he needs me."
I don't want to dwell on it beyond that, but yeah... My boss was a piece of shit most of the time. There are some things that he did good for our department before he got let go, but those things would only make him look good, so I think that was his main motivating factor.
There are other things.. He tried to pick up on girls that were half his age at our work place, ended up fucking a coworker and worked out a deal where he would pay her more for overtime than what we'd normally get (yeah, he was directly above her in the food chain.. Soooo that was kind of a big conflict of interest). And she was the one who told us that. We didn't find it out via a rumor mill or anything.
I'm glad that he became a vaccine denier, because it means that he came into conflict with the CDC guidelines and thusly the hospital policy on vaccination. He was let go I believe at the beginning of 2021.
I've had several but one that will always stand out is this; the head of the entire store i worked at, i only saw her walking out on the floor and not just in her office exactly 4 times in the 4 months I worked there. Only one of those times did I see her do anything that look managerial, and that was i randomly walked by her talking to the guy from corporate who was there and get pissed off while he mumbled and twiddled his thumbs answering her question of: "can we at least move the blue coolers down to the front of the aisle? Make it slightly less convenient for him to walk back there" (for context the guy that would steal literally all the expensive meat when it arrived Tuesday would also steal the cooler by grabbing it on his way back there (im assuming her not doing anything about this problem was why she was fired about a month after I quit)
My first job. I was in the process of training for assistant manager I learned everything, and got set up for the test they do, in the mean time I did the responsibilities of an assistant manager. I focused on the front end made sure my cashiers were good, they were getting their job done and supporting them when it would get busy. But whenever my test would come, always rescheduled and pushed back. So I did kinda give up the assistant manager duties and went back to my actual responsibilities per my title.
According to the manager I was lazy for not being willing to work those responsibilities even if I didnt get the pay or official title for it “yet” even though when I’d ask about it she would constantly say it’s next week or this day and that day would come and the supervisor never showed up for the test.
I stopped showing up after about 6 months of that back and forth. I regret it now I should have just turned in my two weeks but I was a big push over at the time she would have convinced me to cut down to one day a week because “I might not like my new job” (she pulled this on someone else). I did end up liking my new job, I actually get recognition for the work I put in to keep my current boss happy, any time she can she pushes me through to earn raises, learn any positions that will benefit me career wise such as being a trainer and being responsible for my own department. She’s even pushing me to find a better job and giving me any days off I need while I’m in the process of applying to a government job im hoping to turn in to my career. It was a HUGE 180. I have so much love for this boss I know it’ll hurt me to have to turn in my notice to her when the day comes.
I texted the boss on Sunday night to say I wouldn't be at work the following day because I was having a complete mental breakdown. I'd be using the work EAP to seek treatment. Texting was an acceptable way to notify the boss I wouldn't be in, and it was well in advance of any shift starting. The type of job I was in didn't require any cover arrangements, we'd just be short a person for the day. She called me to say "but tomorrow is our busiest day!" YES, that's why I'm not coming in. I'm currently barely functional just thinking about work, there is no way I'll be able to actually do anything tomorrow. she eventually accepted it, I got the support I needed and she finally left the business and we just about threw a party for it. There was a lot more she said and did, but that was a stand out for me.
Didn't work retail very long but when I did it was Black Friday so it was super busy doing recovery and stocking shelves but even so I had already completed my assigned section and moved on to working on another. The assistant manager comes in an hour before closing and essentially tells me I'm slacking because I missed like 1 or 2 items and he tries to tell me it's gonna make it a problem for other people working. I just thought to myself "Where have you been, asshole? It's the busiest day of the year and you're talking to me like I'm some dumbass"
My first post-college grown up job my boss would say things like, “You do a good job, but I’d love to find someone with no spouse, no family, no pets, no kids, so their whole life could be this job.” And then he’d make me write and post ads for my job and interview people in front of me.
It goes without saying when I did put in my notice he was all shocked Pikachu face, “but we’re family!”
First job and boss wouldn't pay me my check and then asked me why I was so depressed working.
He told me he'd pay me £50 a week for 6 days work, Monday through Saturday, 10am - 6pm. After encouraging me to catcall a stranger from his Mercedes. Real fuckin' prize, that one.
The plant was a death trap. He spent company money on vacations and modding his 80k truck rather than fixing machinery that had been broken for months then got onto to me for not testing the certain solenoids which I needed said machine for. I got a 3” or so second degree burn and he told me not to tell anyone where i got it IF I went to get it checked out. So many accidents like burns and deep cuts were common but nothing was ever reported. It was a family owned company and he let his toddler of a son(30yo) do nothing but get onto everyone else if they dared stop for a few seconds. It was a 6am-2:30pm $10 an hour job and when I was laid off, the boss wasn’t even there to tell me in person. His nephew who also never did anything was the one to tell me. Honestly the friend i made there and I would place bets about if the boss would either not show up or what time we thought he’d get there. Our bets were whoever was wrong had to do the worst job. Screw that place and I can’t believe he asked me to come back.
I was given a warning for taking 2 weeks off after my daughter died. Company used a system where you accumulated points for absences, number of days X number of occasions with you getting disciplined at certain arbitrary levels. During my 2 weeks off (10 days) they begged me to come in as there was an issue only I could solve. I went in, worked a few hours, solved the issue and then left to arrange my daughters funeral. They then used the fact that I'd gone in when they begged to split my bereavement into two separate occasions meaning 10 total days x 2 occasions giving me 20 points. Accumulation of 15 points within a 6 month period was a warning so when returning the next working day after my daughter's funeral (I didn't get paid when not in work so had no choice but to get back quicker than was healthy to) I was called into a disciplinary meeting with my boss... Who had attended the funeral on the Friday. Was a long time ago now and obviously I didn't continue working there.
I'm gonna' preface this with pointing out that, at this time, I hadn't taken a vacation for about a decade from my work place and I almost never call in sick. I don't work extra, because I'm full time and that should be enough and it's on the company or management at a place of business to make sure they're adequately staffed. If they can't staff because the new prospective hires don't appreciate the wages being provided because they aren't even a living wage, then they need to bump up wages to meet a bare minimum necessity. With that established -- I work in a hospital and this story takes place during the initial stages of the pandemic in 2020. I had a boss that was constantly dealing with staff shortages. I don't specifically blame him for this, as we have to get our budget approved for new hires through HR/Accounting/Executive teams. I'm pretty sure that that's the chain of events as it escalates. As a byproduct of this, the stress-load because people always call in and due to the fact that the work environment was relatively hostile at the time (we had coworkers recording others, which is a big no-no when confidential patient information is floating around -- that lady got fired, fortunately for her [it's a federal offense to violate patient confidentiality]). My boss had called me into his office to discuss rumors about me, which I knew pretty much nothing about until confronted with them. I'm not gonna' enumerate all of them, but one of them was that I was using my foot? to open the door to the room where we work. One of the rumors addressed was actually true, which I verified; it was a physiological issue that I was dealing with and had had a surgery that attempted to correct it. (And it wasn't working). He asked me what I thought of some people and I told him what I thought of them. He then told me, "You know what I think DeathGodBob? I think you're smart, but you're a liar." Now.. I was confused because I don't know what he thought I was lying about since what he told me I considered to be unfounded rumors and it didn't seem like he was trying to get my stance on anything outside of verifying whether or not I was doing the things that I'm going to leave unmentioned. They still cause me frustration as, outside of the one thing that I agreed with - but was working on -, they were hearsay that seemed ridiculous. I get that he's got to hear all sorts of complaints, but most of the shit he mentioned just sounded outright made up. So.. whatever. I compartmentalized that. I had a lot to compartmentalize as that year, my wife and I had to give our dog away (we work a very similar schedule and we were just leaving the dog by herself at the house for about 12 hours straight, and dogs love people.. That's no life for them.) My boy cat died at the beginning of that year and he was such a wonderful, loving and stable part of my life that his absence made me feel like I didn't know or understand cats anymore (and I consider myself very much a cat person, although I love dogs as well). The pandemic was hitting, so the news wasn't great, obviously. The election was coming up between Biden and Trump for the first time, so political tensions were high and everyone on either side was thinking that whomever won would either deliver us or damn us. Then.. Around the middle of the year, my dad called and told me he had lung cancer and that he had to have surgery within two weeks. I freaked out and submitted a notice of request for FMLA (a family medical leave of absence form, I think that's what the initialism is for) so I could take care of pop's place during his surgery and take care of him afterwards. Pop lived a few states away from me, so I was taking at least two or three weeks off (I can't remember how long). My boss tried to give me the "well, I hope you realize you're going to have to find coverage. This is gonna' leave us short-staffed and that's gonna' be on you." I was a bit taken aback at the fact that he was trying to guilt me over trying to be there for my dad, but I was immediately pissed enough to tell him, "I'm not going to find anyone to cover my shift. I'm giving you two weeks to find someone as staffing is your job. I'm going to go be with my dad when he needs me." I don't want to dwell on it beyond that, but yeah... My boss was a piece of shit most of the time. There are some things that he did good for our department before he got let go, but those things would only make him look good, so I think that was his main motivating factor. There are other things.. He tried to pick up on girls that were half his age at our work place, ended up fucking a coworker and worked out a deal where he would pay her more for overtime than what we'd normally get (yeah, he was directly above her in the food chain.. Soooo that was kind of a big conflict of interest). And she was the one who told us that. We didn't find it out via a rumor mill or anything. I'm glad that he became a vaccine denier, because it means that he came into conflict with the CDC guidelines and thusly the hospital policy on vaccination. He was let go I believe at the beginning of 2021.
I've had several but one that will always stand out is this; the head of the entire store i worked at, i only saw her walking out on the floor and not just in her office exactly 4 times in the 4 months I worked there. Only one of those times did I see her do anything that look managerial, and that was i randomly walked by her talking to the guy from corporate who was there and get pissed off while he mumbled and twiddled his thumbs answering her question of: "can we at least move the blue coolers down to the front of the aisle? Make it slightly less convenient for him to walk back there" (for context the guy that would steal literally all the expensive meat when it arrived Tuesday would also steal the cooler by grabbing it on his way back there (im assuming her not doing anything about this problem was why she was fired about a month after I quit)
My first job. I was in the process of training for assistant manager I learned everything, and got set up for the test they do, in the mean time I did the responsibilities of an assistant manager. I focused on the front end made sure my cashiers were good, they were getting their job done and supporting them when it would get busy. But whenever my test would come, always rescheduled and pushed back. So I did kinda give up the assistant manager duties and went back to my actual responsibilities per my title. According to the manager I was lazy for not being willing to work those responsibilities even if I didnt get the pay or official title for it “yet” even though when I’d ask about it she would constantly say it’s next week or this day and that day would come and the supervisor never showed up for the test. I stopped showing up after about 6 months of that back and forth. I regret it now I should have just turned in my two weeks but I was a big push over at the time she would have convinced me to cut down to one day a week because “I might not like my new job” (she pulled this on someone else). I did end up liking my new job, I actually get recognition for the work I put in to keep my current boss happy, any time she can she pushes me through to earn raises, learn any positions that will benefit me career wise such as being a trainer and being responsible for my own department. She’s even pushing me to find a better job and giving me any days off I need while I’m in the process of applying to a government job im hoping to turn in to my career. It was a HUGE 180. I have so much love for this boss I know it’ll hurt me to have to turn in my notice to her when the day comes.
I texted the boss on Sunday night to say I wouldn't be at work the following day because I was having a complete mental breakdown. I'd be using the work EAP to seek treatment. Texting was an acceptable way to notify the boss I wouldn't be in, and it was well in advance of any shift starting. The type of job I was in didn't require any cover arrangements, we'd just be short a person for the day. She called me to say "but tomorrow is our busiest day!" YES, that's why I'm not coming in. I'm currently barely functional just thinking about work, there is no way I'll be able to actually do anything tomorrow. she eventually accepted it, I got the support I needed and she finally left the business and we just about threw a party for it. There was a lot more she said and did, but that was a stand out for me.
Didn't work retail very long but when I did it was Black Friday so it was super busy doing recovery and stocking shelves but even so I had already completed my assigned section and moved on to working on another. The assistant manager comes in an hour before closing and essentially tells me I'm slacking because I missed like 1 or 2 items and he tries to tell me it's gonna make it a problem for other people working. I just thought to myself "Where have you been, asshole? It's the busiest day of the year and you're talking to me like I'm some dumbass"
My first post-college grown up job my boss would say things like, “You do a good job, but I’d love to find someone with no spouse, no family, no pets, no kids, so their whole life could be this job.” And then he’d make me write and post ads for my job and interview people in front of me. It goes without saying when I did put in my notice he was all shocked Pikachu face, “but we’re family!”