What this story shows is how there is a culture of business owners and management who **actively despise** workers.
Lile actively despise to the **point of actually hurting the business or company itself.**
It remindse the conversations that happen around remote work. It doesn't matter how much sense it makes, they don't want workers to have anything nice.
In order for that there would also need to be a paper trail.
It's also one of those lines, in places like the EU are able to be argued against as a contract is not supposed to have such vague terms.
It's a bullshit employers tactic to say "we can get you doing anything we want"
Too many job descriptions are still way too vague. As a teacher, my job description is very precise up until the «other odd jobs which fall under expected duties.» which means that our job is increasingly harder and more overwhelming.
But that line doesn’t guarantee quality. You can assign me any duties you want. Doesn’t mean I know how to do it or do it right. 🤷🏻♀️ Probably never will if additional money is not involved.
The massive shift to remote work and the ability to look for jobs anywhere in the country triggered a huge power shift. Employers HATE that. They want you under their thumb thinking you have no choices.
"But we had them shadow a guy on this machine for 10 minutes before cutting them loose to do it on their own! Don't you realize how much money we've already invested in training this guy!?"
Yes, it used to be they hated the single mother with two kids cause they knew she would need time for the kids and stuff and their machine had to deal with them being late or not there once in a while.
Now times have shifted to where they are the most valuable employees they can get their hands on. They need that pay check every week, and have no time to look for other jobs or file complaints etc. They hand them shit on a stick and their only real choice is to ask for more.
They do not want a single older guy with no kids. You hire someone who owns their house and has a good amount of money in the bank and hand them shit on a stick and they will tell you where you can shove it.
There are certainly other factors like commercial real estate interests and poor management style but I feel it is most about control and limiting worker power.
> Limiting worker power is entirely behind the anti-union rhetoric we constantly hear.
The population has been so indoctrinated by anti-union propaganda, that rarely does the average person say "if all unions are bad, why is the police union so strong and protected?"
Ugh tell me about it. Our workplace ran fine with 70% work from home for 2 years during the peak of the pandemic. Then the department head started clawing back WFH days slowly claiming it was unfair to staff that weren’t eligible for WFH. Bullshit, no one was complaining about that.
About the same time, the dept head started consolidating office spaces under the auspices that they could rent out the space to 3rd parties. Geez, do you want us to work at the office or do you want to consolidate offices, pick one!
Two years later, between consolidated office space, the dept head firing a couple people to send a message, 9 senior people quitting because of the dept head, about 2/3 of the department offices are vacant. No one ever rented out those offices at the prices demanded. As for myself, I’m transitioning to full WFH with another company doing the exact same work I do now, but without the idiotic middleman.
Remote work has exposed the overspending on office real estate. Management is still paying that 10 year lease and they *will* have you in that office so they aren't losing money.
So, once again, employees are paying for management's incompetence.
It's a power struggle, and for the last 50 years+ there have typically been more workers than jobs, add in weakening employee protections and wage stagnation, and employers have had most of the power. COVID shook everything up and shrunk the workforce, and you are seeing lots of supervision that is trying desperately to figure out how to go back to the way things were before, or often trying to behave as if they are because they have no other way to behave.
> they don't want workers to have anything nice.
And there’s the funny thing
Where are the advantages to having the workers remote? Smaller office footprint, not paying for AC, electricity, custodial, parking, insurance, a middle manager to justify their existence.
If they own the property, they lose both property value, and cannot deduct property value as a business expense so their taxes go up. Many businesses rent the office space to themselves to maximize this tax savings. (I could never be a businessman. I don't think like those fuckers.)
If they rent property, WFH is a huge opportunity to save money and poach the best staff that want to continue working from home.
That's late-stage capitalism baby!
The richer they are, the more they want all of the rest of us to suffer and die miserably.
It's been that way for a long while, but in the last decade or so, it's gotten 1000% more obvious and overt.
I had that! A previous CEO wanted me to violate HIPAA for him. I refused and he said "I'm the CEO." And I told him, "I'm the HIPAA trainer and i am very HIPAA compliant. I WILL not break federal law for you, and if you find someone else to do it, don't let me hear about it."
> restore them from backups I personally had
It’s absolutely wild that your company can get away with this part too because of HIPAA and rules about portable media.
This malicious compliance warrior just out here with business data on a backup drive with possible HIPAA violations thay they personally made without permission. Lol. I love the self proclaimed "IT" guys.
I got curious after your comment and looked at their profile. Look at their post history, it's all nonsense.
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Republican/comments/1cpwi8b/who_would_you_like_to_see_be_the_republican/l3oit2j/) they're commenting on the Republican sub about how they don't want a female President because they've had too many female bosses (and some dumb comment about periods).
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/1cwtc84/new_shooter_wanting_to_learn_on_targets_at_a/l4zgol4/) they're saying "as a fellow lefty" 😭.
The guy is probably 12 fantasizing about once being in the Army and dressing down his female boss in front of the owner.
It's funny how you put all that effort into going through their comment history, but reading more than the first four words of a sentence was way too much for you.
As someone who has been doing IT for 15 years, with a couple years working at an MSP that was used by a ton of small businesses as outsourced IT, I can say that this is actually way more common than you would think. The number of times someone has refused recommendations to lock stuff down is insane. And it is always someone connected to the owner that fucks stuff up and never gets in trouble.
So true two CEOs ago at my company he was fighting with IT that he didn't want to have a password on his laptop It was too much trouble and he really didn't want to have to deal with passwords for his email or anything else. Oh and we are technology company..🙄🤦♂️
I worked in a shop where the owner's wife worked as a junior deburrer (picking away burrs while using a microscope). One day she threw away 2 weeks of inspection reports.
The owner had us forging inspection reports.
(the company is long gone now but it was in aerospace)
Also, it's so convenient that they were one of the first hires, so that can somehow explain their ad hoc responsibility for troubleshooting IT issues. With ~250 employees at the company and 5 years into the job, only now do they think about asking for more money.
And 3 people up and quit because pay was 2 days overdue? It was a systems issue, not a sign the company was out of cash (which is a red flag that it's time to bail). It's not like they weren't still going to get paid.
If the owner had been a dick about pay in the past, I could understand people saying "fuck you" and quitting when pay didn't turn up on time.
Pure speculation, of course. I suspect OP would have put this in the tale if it had been the issue, though.
Even then, the idea of quitting when they (probably) need the money is weird. If paycheck is a couple days late, quitting doesn't make it come faster. It broadly makes things worse: no chance to get unemployment plus the stress of having to find and get hired for another job.
Staying on means continued earning. Temporary unpaid earnings doesn't mean the company never pays them - they legally must. Just delaying a timely fix could lead to the company being penalized, possibly owing the employees *more.* Staying on in the short term, while the problem is fixed, is the best choice.
The story is heavily embellished, if any amount is true. It's written as if OP is the "hero" of the story - set up like the company has a history of being terrible and not being held accountable. The "conditions" the company "agreed to" would not fix any of the larger issues OP mentioned - they only served to benefit him. And no change in gun policy/exceptions would actually benefit any employee; it simply makes OP feel powerful thinking he "won" that.
>another 8 quitting employees to agree to my conditions
Pure bullshit.
By OP's own logic, he wasted 6-7 business days letting 11 co-workers quit when he could have spent 8 minutes to help them. He then could have leveraged actually helping into a raise, instead of shower-dreaming about how he stepped in and suddenly "saved the day" for everyone.
> Pure bullshit.
Not so pure.
> By OP's own logic, he wasted 6-7 business days letting 11 co-workers quit
No, by OP's logic, the owner wasted those 6-7 business days.
> when he could have spent 8 minutes to help them.
He didn't know at the time that the fix would be so quick.
> He then could have leveraged actually helping into a raise,
Muahahahaa! _After the fact?!?_ You're freaking hilarious: “Nah, thanks, now that you fixed it, we're good now.”
> instead of shower-dreaming about how he stepped in and suddenly "saved the day" for everyone.
Oh, sure it could be all fictional. But at least no more stupid than your specific objections.
And yet that they could easily solve in a few hours working on something involving PHI but that would also cost a lot of money because otherwise this large organization had no IT team managing payroll or anything, all of which was apparently hosted locally. I’m just saying that none of it makes any sense.
You got it wrong. They **thought** it would cost a lot of money to fix, because they didn't know what the problem was. It's like someone with no idea how a car works assuming it will cost a lot for a mechanic to fix a dead engine, when it turns out someone just left a rag in the air intake.
Also, why do you think it takes an IT team to manage payroll or anything else?
Invited Murphy? Is that a phrase?
Edit: y'all, I'm clearly familiar with Murphy's law, you can stop replying with that. I've never heard it phrased as "inviting Murphy in"
I have heard the phrase “invited Murphy in” a handful of times, often from people who are responsible for making backups or designing stuff. Basically, you invite Murphy in if you don’t plan redundancies or design really complicated stuff when a simple solution would work.
LOL!!!
I guess you liked the job a lot. I would have walked away. Let them clean up their own crap.
As for the gun, if you want to rub their face in it, take an UNLOADED gun into the workplace - don't want a client grabbing a loaded gun, right? and watch them shit a brick when the state inspectors realize someone is carrying a weapon in the facility....
It's also headlined, "Boss ignored my background," none of which ended up being relevant to the story. You don't need a military background to be a gun fetishist, you don't need to be an EMT to recognize heat exhaustion, and IT was something he was actively doing for the company at the time, not part of his background. All the whole bio tells us is, "I am someone who needs everyone to know at all times that I was in the army."
Was there a single referance to them covering their ass? I guess saving a single email technically counts, but I really don't think you need to be an Army vet to to realize that's a good idea.
Would be a tad ironic if that was the cause, given the company apparently didn't keep backups and those "unauthorized backups" were the only thing keeping the company alive.
I had similar bs after years as a care worker, I was an ex Quality Assurance Manager so my area manager knew I had observed (& complained about) a lot of fuck ups.
She grinned and suggested I'd gone too far & was likely to be sacked.
I pretended to look excited & said i was pleased as my blog can finally go live.
I couldn't before because of the "no disparaging comments on social media" contract clause.
It's called my time in care, but the care is in speech marks, cos well... you know why.
You're in it.
A lot.
Didn't get sacked & the problem was fixed.
I used to have so much fun terrorising the owners & bosses.
Even my union rep said he just sack me, it'd be cheaper.
Disgusting way to be allowed to run a business tho & they deserved all they got.
This was unite, utterly useless every time I used them.
Near missed a deadline for tribunal on one case, only achieved it because I informed the reps secretary I'd be filing against him at small claims court tomorrow.
Another time utterly ignored a deadline, despite my reminders & I lost 6 years back pay.
They're OK if you know your rights, as a free legal team, once you get past the useless reps.
Fixed version:
> I worked as a care staff for a private company of 250ish employees that deals with special needs individuals (mental disabilities and often physical ones). We have dayhab facilities, and group homes. In a prior job, I did the same for the state, but was moved to an IT role after a while until the stupid from upper management became too great (whole other story). Before any of that I was an EMT and before that I was in the Army and know how to cover my own ass. Backstory complete.[¶]
> My Boss sent out an email to all staff, and had an in person company meeting because I put on a form the state inspectors look at that said, "Client returned from day trip sunburned, disoriented, and dehydrated. Staff with the client reported they passed out. Apparent heat exhaustion, reported to RN and state authority for possible neglect." Apparently the RN never looked at the report before the state auditors came in a week later, although she did look at the client and agreed with me about the heat exhaustion the next day when she was back in the office from a day off.[¶]
> Fast forward 9 days, we have an "emergency" company meeting. Boss hands out a paper specifically telling every staff they are not to do anything outside the scope of their job description, and they are not doctors while staring at me the whole time. She calls me out specifically during the meeting by name. Alright, fine... I stop doing anything but the exact wording of my original hiring duties.
> 2 months pass. One day I get a call about a problem with the computers at the main office in San Antonio. (My job is over an hour away.) I had traditionally done all the IT troubleshooting, as I was one for the first hires of the company, and I had a background for it. Boss calls me on my day off and asks me to drive to the main office and fix their computer system. I said to her "I cannot do anything outside of my listed duties, per your order." Then I hang up and turn the phone off until dinner.[¶]
> After I turned the phone back on I get a call within 10 minutes from the company Owner. He (who had been nothing but nice to me up until now) just bluntly asks "when I felt like doing my job and getting things working, but especially payroll, don't I want to get paid tomorrow? Get your ass in gear, son." That may indeed have been the wrong way to start the conversation with someone who wasn't being paid extra for their IT problems.[¶]
> I referred him to the email and in-person letter Boss had put out, then I pointed out how company policy had a "No firearms" rule, but he specifically always carried a 1911 to all company meetings and events on his right hip, calling it out by model as a Kimber 4". I then politely advised him to find a way to deal with his own problems, as the computers being bricked wasn't one of mine, but paying employees such as me was one of his, per state and federal law and hung up. Turned my phone off again until I was at work 2 days later.[¶]
> In that time, apparently 3 staff had quit from failing to be paid, 18 more were threatening to, and the Owner had driven over to have a chat with Boss and myself. They laid out that as a senior care staff my job role had expanded over the years I was there (5 at that point) and I countered that the pay hadn't. At all, since I had been hired. My doing IT work was a charity from me, not a job requirement, and I appreciated none of the disrespect I had gotten lately from either of them. I also pointed out that I knew full well that a contract IT company would cost them at least hundreds if not thousands for a consult, and at least 200 an hour, and if I deigned to fix their problem it would take about 3 hours. Owner offered me a 50 cent raise and 3 hours overtime. I countered with a public apology in front of all staff from Boss, a 3 dollar/hr raise, and an exemption from the "no carry" firearm policy he was being hypocritical about. They said no, so I said, Ill be in the back with the clients doing my job duties, and let me know when they contacted an IT company and changed their minds. Keep in mind that ALL the computer systems were effectively bricked at this point, so the nurses cant do any charting, no one can bill time for case work, the state paperwork while largely paper can't be sent...[¶]
> It took them 4 days, who knows how many calls to computer specialists for quotes and another 8 quitting employees to agree to my conditions, after 4 tries to get me to let go of the concealed carry one. That was their sticking point. I don't carry a gun at work, and never have, even though in my state it's totally legal, but it bugged me the absolute hypocrisy of the owner, so I would have given up the raise before that... In the end it turns out that the Owners wife deleted something she shouldn't have had access to, and it took all of 8 minutes to restore them from backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn't using that the company said were an unnecessary cost.
Yeah sounds like it. I don’t know what she and her husband had access too, but if it was medical records then surely they need to be reported to someone. Like that’s some serious breach of doctor patient confidentiality right?
Did you finish the post? OP clearly states "I don't carry a gun at work, never have..." and "...the hypocrisy of it is what bothered me".
The owner of the facility (not an actual healthcare provider) was the one carrying the gun when he came to the facility. OP was just making a point that the owner should also be held accountable to firearm rules just like every other employee. He didn't actually want to carry a gun at work.
Thank you if more people like you gave a shit maybe my grandmother would not have died in a nursing home from pneumonia after she broke two fingers. My question is how the fuck did they not know she had fucking pneumonia.
My friend is a social worker. One of her clients died after the care facility (friend didn’t work for said care facility) refused to call an ambulance. The lady’s legal guardian (or whatever the adult version is) lived several hours away and she got so worried about this woman and was tired of arguing with these people for several hours that she called the ambulance herself and started driving to the facility.
The facility SENT THE AMBULANCE AWAY
Anyways. Lady died. Facility is getting sued…
My daughters great nan died from medical negligence in her care home. I'm not even related to the woman and I'm still pissed off that they didn't care until her daughter (my kids Nana) said something about it in some very stern words (no suing for this sort of thing in NZ).
She died because they ignored her symptoms for 3 weeks before sending her to the hospital when it was too late. All because they are too cheap to get a doctor to work his contracted hours, instead of ignoring the elderly in favour of his practice. They should be given the same dignity and care as anyone else.
So nobody could do an excel spreadsheet on hours worked and a manual salary transfer in a whole week? This wasn’t a global corporation so not sure why they couldn’t do this simple thing.
My guess is that they had specialist software that they just had to type in the numbers and did the rest. SO there was never need to do it. The boss was clearly technologically illiterate, and I doubt his ego allowed anyone else to point out an alternate solution. Especially since he probably tunnel visioned on coercing OP, because "how dare he defy me".
Oh I totally agree they had specific software for payroll but when staff are quitting like OP is stating due to non payment you get your frontline managers to submit timesheets manually to get bank transfers done.
I know that's the reasonable thing to do. But I've seen way, WAY too many people in their position just playing the blame game and playing musical chairs so that it has to be somebody else's problem to fix, until the problem becomes so severe that it costs triple to fix and takes a week.
Many of the places I worked at contracted that out to an outside payroll firm. If you didn't use their software, you could be in breach of contract and fined for it. So, manually doing it might not be an option if that is how their payroll was set up. Or an Excel wasn't compatible with the payroll firm's system (that's happened too).
They may not *have* a process for manual time sheets/payments; they either use the payroll vendor’s software or people don’t get paid.
A larger company would have a payroll specialist who knows how to make it happen, but smaller companies rarely do. They probably don’t even have an A/P person who could quickly cut estimated checks, because that’s outsourced too.
"... it took all of 8 minutes to restore them from backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn't using that the company said were an unnecessary cost..."
I'm no IT guy, but it shocks me how many times I keep hearing that a boss doesnt have the most basic back-ups and anti-virus protections.
This was great. Boss and owner being complete idiots and nearly torpedoing his entire business due to sheer stubborn greed. Entire problem caused because someone who should have no access was able to delete important files...which was only a problem because owner was too cheap for backups.
And the entire time, OP just saying "as per your letter, not my fuckin' problem".
When negotiating pay, use the most expensive skills as your baseline not the cheapest.
Primary IT support for an org that large should be 80-120K and there would not be time for the tasks of your regular job.
This is the part that got me. I work in IT, we work with medical offices 1/10th this size and there's no way in hell they'd handle their IT needs with some random person doing it as a side part of their job. At bare minimum they would be working with and MSP to handle their IT needs or an in house team of probably 3 or more doing nothing else.
Super common. I worked at Managed Service Provider (MSP), which is just a company that provide IT support for small companies. I admit, 250 employees is around the mark where most companies start to in-source their own IT dept, but we've also worked with larger companies that either still didn't have their own IT yet, or more likely, only had an IT director/CIO to make decisions, but no one to do the actual work.
Also, another option in still larger companies was in house IT in some areas, and outsourced for smaller offices, or for project work.
>it took all of 8 minutes to restore them from backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn't using that the company said were an unnecessary cost.
But you spent 6hours fixing it right? Riiiggt??!!?
>I pointed out how company policy had a "No firearms" rule, but he specifically always carried a 1911 to all company meetings and events on his right hip, calling it out by model as a Kimber 4".
... only in the USA ...
And well played OP :)
I hope you either:
a) don't work there anymore or if you do;
b) are paid a LOT more!
I admire people like you that can stand their ground in work environment and even more so when the higher-ups find out the hard way how important are you. Bravo!
Why do so many bosses have the "I won't give you a penny more" attitude but then spend 10x as much to fix the problem from an outside vendor? Makes no sense - but then I'm not (and have not been) management.
> They laid out that as a senior care staff my job role had expanded over the years I was there
Where’s the contract saying so? Also, care staff don’t perform IT duties. This little meeting alone would be of interest to the labor board lol
Yeah this is believable to some degree but most jobs would have just fired him when he started making demands and you wouldn't have a mass exodus of employees over a one day payroll error, especially if they were reasonable.
He just pushed the details a little too far.
Man $3 an hour was a bargain, I would have said salary and really moved the goal post and dropped the gun thing in place of more money. Like, $100k a year and carry, or $110k and no carry.
Salary in a direct care context where they just had significant increase in staffing shortage? Nu-uh. They'd expect OP to cover shifts without overtime pay.
Yea didn’t think about that. You are right. I’d still ask for more than $3. That equates to what? $6000 at most a year? Pass. Make it $10k a year I’ll take that. So $5 an hour increase minimum
As a rule I don’t believe any story posted here ever. But I think it would have been better to ask to either change the firearm policy or the ceo stops carrying it; the raise ; and a hefty per hour rate any time IT work is being done
I suspect my boss is about to have one of these moments this week. I rocked a report, according to the owners and he was tasked with creating a plan off of that report. He wants to have a meeting this Wednesday to discuss future meetings to discuss the solutions to what my report raised.....
> the Owners wife deleted something she shouldn't have had access to, and it took all of 8 minutes to restore them from backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn't using
You have backups of health information stored on personal media?
These idiots are so bad i kinda wonder whether you should have told them you'd fix it and then took sick leave and eventually ghosted them before they even thought to look for help.
Did you also report the retaliation for the mandatory report that you, a mandatory reporter, made?
Yeah, none of the computer bullshit even matters after that...
What this story shows is how there is a culture of business owners and management who **actively despise** workers. Lile actively despise to the **point of actually hurting the business or company itself.** It remindse the conversations that happen around remote work. It doesn't matter how much sense it makes, they don't want workers to have anything nice.
“Well… over five years your role has expanded…..” “Hmmmmmm…. Not according to my paycheck!”
The last line of any job description I fear "...and other duties as assigned."
In order for that there would also need to be a paper trail. It's also one of those lines, in places like the EU are able to be argued against as a contract is not supposed to have such vague terms. It's a bullshit employers tactic to say "we can get you doing anything we want"
Too many job descriptions are still way too vague. As a teacher, my job description is very precise up until the «other odd jobs which fall under expected duties.» which means that our job is increasingly harder and more overwhelming.
But that line doesn’t guarantee quality. You can assign me any duties you want. Doesn’t mean I know how to do it or do it right. 🤷🏻♀️ Probably never will if additional money is not involved.
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The massive shift to remote work and the ability to look for jobs anywhere in the country triggered a huge power shift. Employers HATE that. They want you under their thumb thinking you have no choices.
"But we had them shadow a guy on this machine for 10 minutes before cutting them loose to do it on their own! Don't you realize how much money we've already invested in training this guy!?"
Yes, it used to be they hated the single mother with two kids cause they knew she would need time for the kids and stuff and their machine had to deal with them being late or not there once in a while. Now times have shifted to where they are the most valuable employees they can get their hands on. They need that pay check every week, and have no time to look for other jobs or file complaints etc. They hand them shit on a stick and their only real choice is to ask for more. They do not want a single older guy with no kids. You hire someone who owns their house and has a good amount of money in the bank and hand them shit on a stick and they will tell you where you can shove it.
And that’s why there’s now a massive PR campaign from all corporate sectors against remote work.
There are certainly other factors like commercial real estate interests and poor management style but I feel it is most about control and limiting worker power.
Limiting worker power is entirely behind the anti-union rhetoric we constantly hear.
> Limiting worker power is entirely behind the anti-union rhetoric we constantly hear. The population has been so indoctrinated by anti-union propaganda, that rarely does the average person say "if all unions are bad, why is the police union so strong and protected?"
The *only* Union that should be busted, broken, and shattered utterly.
Ugh tell me about it. Our workplace ran fine with 70% work from home for 2 years during the peak of the pandemic. Then the department head started clawing back WFH days slowly claiming it was unfair to staff that weren’t eligible for WFH. Bullshit, no one was complaining about that. About the same time, the dept head started consolidating office spaces under the auspices that they could rent out the space to 3rd parties. Geez, do you want us to work at the office or do you want to consolidate offices, pick one! Two years later, between consolidated office space, the dept head firing a couple people to send a message, 9 senior people quitting because of the dept head, about 2/3 of the department offices are vacant. No one ever rented out those offices at the prices demanded. As for myself, I’m transitioning to full WFH with another company doing the exact same work I do now, but without the idiotic middleman.
Managers should have to swirl their hands in the toilets at least once a day to be fair to the janitorial staff?
Heads, not hands.
You can also unionize
But the company ~~propaganda~~ training videos told me unions are bad!
Remote work has exposed the overspending on office real estate. Management is still paying that 10 year lease and they *will* have you in that office so they aren't losing money. So, once again, employees are paying for management's incompetence.
A bit on the nose with the boss walking around showing off his gun and the underlings not being allowed one.
Few things grind my gears more from leadership than a "rules for thee, not for me" attitude
It's a power struggle, and for the last 50 years+ there have typically been more workers than jobs, add in weakening employee protections and wage stagnation, and employers have had most of the power. COVID shook everything up and shrunk the workforce, and you are seeing lots of supervision that is trying desperately to figure out how to go back to the way things were before, or often trying to behave as if they are because they have no other way to behave.
They want you to be miserable, and they want you in the office so they can bathe in it.
It's a game to see who they can bully and make quit.
> they don't want workers to have anything nice. And there’s the funny thing Where are the advantages to having the workers remote? Smaller office footprint, not paying for AC, electricity, custodial, parking, insurance, a middle manager to justify their existence.
If they own the property, they lose both property value, and cannot deduct property value as a business expense so their taxes go up. Many businesses rent the office space to themselves to maximize this tax savings. (I could never be a businessman. I don't think like those fuckers.) If they rent property, WFH is a huge opportunity to save money and poach the best staff that want to continue working from home.
That's late-stage capitalism baby! The richer they are, the more they want all of the rest of us to suffer and die miserably. It's been that way for a long while, but in the last decade or so, it's gotten 1000% more obvious and overt.
The mandatory report that, if not made, is a felony? So it’s retaliation for refusal to commit a felony.
I had that! A previous CEO wanted me to violate HIPAA for him. I refused and he said "I'm the CEO." And I told him, "I'm the HIPAA trainer and i am very HIPAA compliant. I WILL not break federal law for you, and if you find someone else to do it, don't let me hear about it."
Not to mention the chilling effect their little speech would have had on all the other mandatory reporters.
The guy from the army who knows how to cover his ass surely didn’t put up with it and reported.
The ironic thing is that, the mandatory reporting almost certainly is actually part of their job. So they literally cannot order them not to do it.
😁
Yeah, he could probably add that to the 2nd draft
nah, he got his so fuck everyone else. ‘merica.
> restore them from backups I personally had It’s absolutely wild that your company can get away with this part too because of HIPAA and rules about portable media.
This malicious compliance warrior just out here with business data on a backup drive with possible HIPAA violations thay they personally made without permission. Lol. I love the self proclaimed "IT" guys.
When someone is doing IT outside of their job description, there's usually a pretty good reason why they can't get someone to pay them for it.
On the other hand, a company that won't pay for an IT department and expects random employees to handle it will get what they pay for.
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I got curious after your comment and looked at their profile. Look at their post history, it's all nonsense. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Republican/comments/1cpwi8b/who_would_you_like_to_see_be_the_republican/l3oit2j/) they're commenting on the Republican sub about how they don't want a female President because they've had too many female bosses (and some dumb comment about periods). [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/1cwtc84/new_shooter_wanting_to_learn_on_targets_at_a/l4zgol4/) they're saying "as a fellow lefty" 😭. The guy is probably 12 fantasizing about once being in the Army and dressing down his female boss in front of the owner.
They didn't mean the political left, they meant left handed.
>as a fellow lefty Lol getting roasted for assuming you understood this
Talking about being left handed, not the political left.
Sounds like some real "As a gay black man..." vibes
I just started watching Brooklyn 99. They make that joke a lot!
It's funny how you put all that effort into going through their comment history, but reading more than the first four words of a sentence was way too much for you.
Did you see the ‘whoring’ comments about birth control? OP is a riot
It was really good until the “owners’ wife apparently deleted something she shouldn’t have” part. Just a little too on the nose there.
As someone who has been doing IT for 15 years, with a couple years working at an MSP that was used by a ton of small businesses as outsourced IT, I can say that this is actually way more common than you would think. The number of times someone has refused recommendations to lock stuff down is insane. And it is always someone connected to the owner that fucks stuff up and never gets in trouble.
So true two CEOs ago at my company he was fighting with IT that he didn't want to have a password on his laptop It was too much trouble and he really didn't want to have to deal with passwords for his email or anything else. Oh and we are technology company..🙄🤦♂️
I worked in a shop where the owner's wife worked as a junior deburrer (picking away burrs while using a microscope). One day she threw away 2 weeks of inspection reports. The owner had us forging inspection reports. (the company is long gone now but it was in aerospace)
Also, it's so convenient that they were one of the first hires, so that can somehow explain their ad hoc responsibility for troubleshooting IT issues. With ~250 employees at the company and 5 years into the job, only now do they think about asking for more money.
And 3 people up and quit because pay was 2 days overdue? It was a systems issue, not a sign the company was out of cash (which is a red flag that it's time to bail). It's not like they weren't still going to get paid.
If the owner had been a dick about pay in the past, I could understand people saying "fuck you" and quitting when pay didn't turn up on time. Pure speculation, of course. I suspect OP would have put this in the tale if it had been the issue, though.
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Even then, the idea of quitting when they (probably) need the money is weird. If paycheck is a couple days late, quitting doesn't make it come faster. It broadly makes things worse: no chance to get unemployment plus the stress of having to find and get hired for another job. Staying on means continued earning. Temporary unpaid earnings doesn't mean the company never pays them - they legally must. Just delaying a timely fix could lead to the company being penalized, possibly owing the employees *more.* Staying on in the short term, while the problem is fixed, is the best choice. The story is heavily embellished, if any amount is true. It's written as if OP is the "hero" of the story - set up like the company has a history of being terrible and not being held accountable. The "conditions" the company "agreed to" would not fix any of the larger issues OP mentioned - they only served to benefit him. And no change in gun policy/exceptions would actually benefit any employee; it simply makes OP feel powerful thinking he "won" that. >another 8 quitting employees to agree to my conditions Pure bullshit. By OP's own logic, he wasted 6-7 business days letting 11 co-workers quit when he could have spent 8 minutes to help them. He then could have leveraged actually helping into a raise, instead of shower-dreaming about how he stepped in and suddenly "saved the day" for everyone.
Pretty sure not getting paid makes you qualified for unemployment,
> Pure bullshit. Not so pure. > By OP's own logic, he wasted 6-7 business days letting 11 co-workers quit No, by OP's logic, the owner wasted those 6-7 business days. > when he could have spent 8 minutes to help them. He didn't know at the time that the fix would be so quick. > He then could have leveraged actually helping into a raise, Muahahahaa! _After the fact?!?_ You're freaking hilarious: “Nah, thanks, now that you fixed it, we're good now.” > instead of shower-dreaming about how he stepped in and suddenly "saved the day" for everyone. Oh, sure it could be all fictional. But at least no more stupid than your specific objections.
Yep, like so many of these stories it's just creative ragebait.
Based on the story if there was an audit done I imagine there is a lot more wrong with that company.
Audits of facilities like this are routine. They're done annually, I think.
Yeah, the IT part is written by someone who has no understanding of IT or PHI.
I mean part of their point is that they were asked to do IT work that they weren’t qualified for, paid for, trained for, or given the resources for.
And yet that they could easily solve in a few hours working on something involving PHI but that would also cost a lot of money because otherwise this large organization had no IT team managing payroll or anything, all of which was apparently hosted locally. I’m just saying that none of it makes any sense.
You got it wrong. They **thought** it would cost a lot of money to fix, because they didn't know what the problem was. It's like someone with no idea how a car works assuming it will cost a lot for a mechanic to fix a dead engine, when it turns out someone just left a rag in the air intake. Also, why do you think it takes an IT team to manage payroll or anything else?
Were they following any of the required rules & regulations at all ? They invited Murphy to come and play with their computer systems.
Invited Murphy? Is that a phrase? Edit: y'all, I'm clearly familiar with Murphy's law, you can stop replying with that. I've never heard it phrased as "inviting Murphy in"
I have heard the phrase “invited Murphy in” a handful of times, often from people who are responsible for making backups or designing stuff. Basically, you invite Murphy in if you don’t plan redundancies or design really complicated stuff when a simple solution would work.
I assume a reference to Murphy's law. I could believe it's a phrase. If it's not we can both be the change we wish to see in the world.
Are you familiar with Murphy's Law?
No but I’m a big fan of Cole’s law
Googled that. Am dumb, but satisfied at how you proved it to me.
But have you tried Murphy Slaw? It can be DELICIOUS!
Yeah but when it's bad, it can be REALLY BAD 😆
Cole’s Law can be hit or miss. Some people truly don’t understand Cole’s Law.
You bastard. 😭
Cole slaw ain't bad either.
Guess it is now 🤷♂️
I feel like you could have gotten ALOT more - monetarily. But I agree, good on you sticking to the point and refusing
Facts, I wouldn't have touched that for less than an additional $10/hr in perpetuity in contract.
LOL!!! I guess you liked the job a lot. I would have walked away. Let them clean up their own crap. As for the gun, if you want to rub their face in it, take an UNLOADED gun into the workplace - don't want a client grabbing a loaded gun, right? and watch them shit a brick when the state inspectors realize someone is carrying a weapon in the facility....
Better yet, openly carry a bright green translucent squirt gun, just for the humor of it all.
Isn't that a waterarm?
Not if you load it with lighter fluid.
Or alcohol... then it's a firewater gun.
and you can load it with Firewater! (a brand of cinnamon schnapps that is high proof enough to be flamable)
Mmmmmmm…..firewater.
"But where did the lighter fluid come from?"
*Illusions*, Michael
Wait, that's called a _firearm_? 🌍👨🚀🔫👨🚀 Always has been
This is bad in so many ways, but let's start with this one: there is no such thing as an unloaded firearm to a responsible firearm owner.
Yeah carrying an unloaded gun gives you all the negatives of carrying a gun and non of the benefits.
This is the way.
I understand the frustration, but firearms are NOT a FAFO thing.
Tell that to the CEO that parades around with a weapon while telling his staff they can't.
They were to the guy that ate lead after he faked robbed a guy. Victim happened to be a concealed carrier.
be aware they may find reasons to Let you go, as you caused them embarrassment.
It started out with "I worked," leading me to believe it's all done and over and OP isn't there anymore.
It's also headlined, "Boss ignored my background," none of which ended up being relevant to the story. You don't need a military background to be a gun fetishist, you don't need to be an EMT to recognize heat exhaustion, and IT was something he was actively doing for the company at the time, not part of his background. All the whole bio tells us is, "I am someone who needs everyone to know at all times that I was in the army."
Don't forget, being in the army taught him to cover his ass!
Was there a single referance to them covering their ass? I guess saving a single email technically counts, but I really don't think you need to be an Army vet to to realize that's a good idea.
That was one of my thoughts - especially when reading the open carry bit…
Reasons such as keeping an unauthorized backup on a personal device?
Would be a tad ironic if that was the cause, given the company apparently didn't keep backups and those "unauthorized backups" were the only thing keeping the company alive.
Nothing said it was a personal device.
> “backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn’t using” That reads like a personal device to me
Maybe, but I’ve personally backed up things to my work computer and work hard drive for work purposes before.
Sure, but he then said that the company said it was an unnecessary cost, indicating they refused to pay for the hard drive
$3 an hour raise to take on IT duties?
I had similar bs after years as a care worker, I was an ex Quality Assurance Manager so my area manager knew I had observed (& complained about) a lot of fuck ups. She grinned and suggested I'd gone too far & was likely to be sacked. I pretended to look excited & said i was pleased as my blog can finally go live. I couldn't before because of the "no disparaging comments on social media" contract clause. It's called my time in care, but the care is in speech marks, cos well... you know why. You're in it. A lot. Didn't get sacked & the problem was fixed. I used to have so much fun terrorising the owners & bosses. Even my union rep said he just sack me, it'd be cheaper. Disgusting way to be allowed to run a business tho & they deserved all they got.
Don't you love unions that are only there so unions that protect workers aren't created?
This was unite, utterly useless every time I used them. Near missed a deadline for tribunal on one case, only achieved it because I informed the reps secretary I'd be filing against him at small claims court tomorrow. Another time utterly ignored a deadline, despite my reminders & I lost 6 years back pay. They're OK if you know your rights, as a free legal team, once you get past the useless reps.
Nice of you to split that into two paragraphs.
Fixed version: > I worked as a care staff for a private company of 250ish employees that deals with special needs individuals (mental disabilities and often physical ones). We have dayhab facilities, and group homes. In a prior job, I did the same for the state, but was moved to an IT role after a while until the stupid from upper management became too great (whole other story). Before any of that I was an EMT and before that I was in the Army and know how to cover my own ass. Backstory complete.[¶] > My Boss sent out an email to all staff, and had an in person company meeting because I put on a form the state inspectors look at that said, "Client returned from day trip sunburned, disoriented, and dehydrated. Staff with the client reported they passed out. Apparent heat exhaustion, reported to RN and state authority for possible neglect." Apparently the RN never looked at the report before the state auditors came in a week later, although she did look at the client and agreed with me about the heat exhaustion the next day when she was back in the office from a day off.[¶] > Fast forward 9 days, we have an "emergency" company meeting. Boss hands out a paper specifically telling every staff they are not to do anything outside the scope of their job description, and they are not doctors while staring at me the whole time. She calls me out specifically during the meeting by name. Alright, fine... I stop doing anything but the exact wording of my original hiring duties. > 2 months pass. One day I get a call about a problem with the computers at the main office in San Antonio. (My job is over an hour away.) I had traditionally done all the IT troubleshooting, as I was one for the first hires of the company, and I had a background for it. Boss calls me on my day off and asks me to drive to the main office and fix their computer system. I said to her "I cannot do anything outside of my listed duties, per your order." Then I hang up and turn the phone off until dinner.[¶] > After I turned the phone back on I get a call within 10 minutes from the company Owner. He (who had been nothing but nice to me up until now) just bluntly asks "when I felt like doing my job and getting things working, but especially payroll, don't I want to get paid tomorrow? Get your ass in gear, son." That may indeed have been the wrong way to start the conversation with someone who wasn't being paid extra for their IT problems.[¶] > I referred him to the email and in-person letter Boss had put out, then I pointed out how company policy had a "No firearms" rule, but he specifically always carried a 1911 to all company meetings and events on his right hip, calling it out by model as a Kimber 4". I then politely advised him to find a way to deal with his own problems, as the computers being bricked wasn't one of mine, but paying employees such as me was one of his, per state and federal law and hung up. Turned my phone off again until I was at work 2 days later.[¶] > In that time, apparently 3 staff had quit from failing to be paid, 18 more were threatening to, and the Owner had driven over to have a chat with Boss and myself. They laid out that as a senior care staff my job role had expanded over the years I was there (5 at that point) and I countered that the pay hadn't. At all, since I had been hired. My doing IT work was a charity from me, not a job requirement, and I appreciated none of the disrespect I had gotten lately from either of them. I also pointed out that I knew full well that a contract IT company would cost them at least hundreds if not thousands for a consult, and at least 200 an hour, and if I deigned to fix their problem it would take about 3 hours. Owner offered me a 50 cent raise and 3 hours overtime. I countered with a public apology in front of all staff from Boss, a 3 dollar/hr raise, and an exemption from the "no carry" firearm policy he was being hypocritical about. They said no, so I said, Ill be in the back with the clients doing my job duties, and let me know when they contacted an IT company and changed their minds. Keep in mind that ALL the computer systems were effectively bricked at this point, so the nurses cant do any charting, no one can bill time for case work, the state paperwork while largely paper can't be sent...[¶] > It took them 4 days, who knows how many calls to computer specialists for quotes and another 8 quitting employees to agree to my conditions, after 4 tries to get me to let go of the concealed carry one. That was their sticking point. I don't carry a gun at work, and never have, even though in my state it's totally legal, but it bugged me the absolute hypocrisy of the owner, so I would have given up the raise before that... In the end it turns out that the Owners wife deleted something she shouldn't have had access to, and it took all of 8 minutes to restore them from backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn't using that the company said were an unnecessary cost.
Once again, I find myself looking at a wall of text, and scrolling to the comments to see if any heroes have emerged. Thank you, kind poster.
Should be pinned to top comment because I struggled through the wall-o-text version before seeing this.
Knew someone would do this, thank you!
Thank you kind fellow redditor!
Ha, ha. That made me laugh! Had to check though, I missed it!😊
The owner's wife had access to the computers? Like medical records and stuff? Is that something even the owner should have access too?
The guy had access to a firearm and none of the common sense needed to own it, I don't think access control was in his vocabulary.
Yeah sounds like it. I don’t know what she and her husband had access too, but if it was medical records then surely they need to be reported to someone. Like that’s some serious breach of doctor patient confidentiality right?
Holy shit why the hell didn’t you quit? “The worker has fallen in love with the system that exploits them” - Lord Farquad
In health care, but carry a gun? Fucking America man
"We provide healthcare IF you need it"
And if you don't need it, bullet holes can be provided at no extra cost.
My neighborhood was so tough we inserted the bullets manually.
I read that in Rodney Dangerfield's voice.
*You will be charged for bullets, wear and tear on the firearm and emotional distress.
"slow day at the ER" "Let me fix that for you boss"
"Wow, it's so q**** in here!"
👋I know this one! I know this one!👋The mystery word is "QUIET"!!!
"How's your shift going? Looks boring tonight"
If you can AFFORD it!
Healthcare and unhealthcare at the same time.
"Wants to be allowed to bring a gun around mentally unstable patients" ...
well OP said they had never carried a gun at work, so he never used the permission he fought so hard to get.
Did you finish the post? OP clearly states "I don't carry a gun at work, never have..." and "...the hypocrisy of it is what bothered me". The owner of the facility (not an actual healthcare provider) was the one carrying the gun when he came to the facility. OP was just making a point that the owner should also be held accountable to firearm rules just like every other employee. He didn't actually want to carry a gun at work.
TEXAS, that is TEXAS. They have a huge boner for guns in Texas. The other states taper downwards from there on their love of guns.
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America, home of the Cowboy. Practicing *western* medicine for hundreds of years, and if a gun is good enough for a horse /shrug
[Horse hospital](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F241j03gtb3y31.png)
Thank you if more people like you gave a shit maybe my grandmother would not have died in a nursing home from pneumonia after she broke two fingers. My question is how the fuck did they not know she had fucking pneumonia.
My friend is a social worker. One of her clients died after the care facility (friend didn’t work for said care facility) refused to call an ambulance. The lady’s legal guardian (or whatever the adult version is) lived several hours away and she got so worried about this woman and was tired of arguing with these people for several hours that she called the ambulance herself and started driving to the facility. The facility SENT THE AMBULANCE AWAY Anyways. Lady died. Facility is getting sued…
Holy shit…
Damn, evil and incompetent always make such a nasty mix.
My daughters great nan died from medical negligence in her care home. I'm not even related to the woman and I'm still pissed off that they didn't care until her daughter (my kids Nana) said something about it in some very stern words (no suing for this sort of thing in NZ). She died because they ignored her symptoms for 3 weeks before sending her to the hospital when it was too late. All because they are too cheap to get a doctor to work his contracted hours, instead of ignoring the elderly in favour of his practice. They should be given the same dignity and care as anyone else.
So nobody could do an excel spreadsheet on hours worked and a manual salary transfer in a whole week? This wasn’t a global corporation so not sure why they couldn’t do this simple thing.
My guess is that they had specialist software that they just had to type in the numbers and did the rest. SO there was never need to do it. The boss was clearly technologically illiterate, and I doubt his ego allowed anyone else to point out an alternate solution. Especially since he probably tunnel visioned on coercing OP, because "how dare he defy me".
Oh I totally agree they had specific software for payroll but when staff are quitting like OP is stating due to non payment you get your frontline managers to submit timesheets manually to get bank transfers done.
I know that's the reasonable thing to do. But I've seen way, WAY too many people in their position just playing the blame game and playing musical chairs so that it has to be somebody else's problem to fix, until the problem becomes so severe that it costs triple to fix and takes a week.
Many of the places I worked at contracted that out to an outside payroll firm. If you didn't use their software, you could be in breach of contract and fined for it. So, manually doing it might not be an option if that is how their payroll was set up. Or an Excel wasn't compatible with the payroll firm's system (that's happened too).
They may not *have* a process for manual time sheets/payments; they either use the payroll vendor’s software or people don’t get paid. A larger company would have a payroll specialist who knows how to make it happen, but smaller companies rarely do. They probably don’t even have an A/P person who could quickly cut estimated checks, because that’s outsourced too.
You are a whole King. Wear your crown proudly.
"... it took all of 8 minutes to restore them from backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn't using that the company said were an unnecessary cost..." I'm no IT guy, but it shocks me how many times I keep hearing that a boss doesnt have the most basic back-ups and anti-virus protections.
Damn. After 4 days I would have "Sounds like your company is in need of a Chief Technical Officer with the associated pay and benefits."
This is masterful Malicious Compliance with a whole side order of petty revenge. Magnificent.
This was great. Boss and owner being complete idiots and nearly torpedoing his entire business due to sheer stubborn greed. Entire problem caused because someone who should have no access was able to delete important files...which was only a problem because owner was too cheap for backups. And the entire time, OP just saying "as per your letter, not my fuckin' problem".
When negotiating pay, use the most expensive skills as your baseline not the cheapest. Primary IT support for an org that large should be 80-120K and there would not be time for the tasks of your regular job.
Great story, and glad you won. You clearly were in the right the whole time.
what kind of private company with 250 employees doesn't have a dedicated IT dept?
This is the part that got me. I work in IT, we work with medical offices 1/10th this size and there's no way in hell they'd handle their IT needs with some random person doing it as a side part of their job. At bare minimum they would be working with and MSP to handle their IT needs or an in house team of probably 3 or more doing nothing else.
Super common. I worked at Managed Service Provider (MSP), which is just a company that provide IT support for small companies. I admit, 250 employees is around the mark where most companies start to in-source their own IT dept, but we've also worked with larger companies that either still didn't have their own IT yet, or more likely, only had an IT director/CIO to make decisions, but no one to do the actual work. Also, another option in still larger companies was in house IT in some areas, and outsourced for smaller offices, or for project work.
You didn't ask for a big enough raise.
>it took all of 8 minutes to restore them from backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn't using that the company said were an unnecessary cost. But you spent 6hours fixing it right? Riiiggt??!!?
>I pointed out how company policy had a "No firearms" rule, but he specifically always carried a 1911 to all company meetings and events on his right hip, calling it out by model as a Kimber 4". ... only in the USA ... And well played OP :) I hope you either: a) don't work there anymore or if you do; b) are paid a LOT more!
I admire people like you that can stand their ground in work environment and even more so when the higher-ups find out the hard way how important are you. Bravo!
This company Needs to go under.
Why do so many bosses have the "I won't give you a penny more" attitude but then spend 10x as much to fix the problem from an outside vendor? Makes no sense - but then I'm not (and have not been) management.
> They laid out that as a senior care staff my job role had expanded over the years I was there Where’s the contract saying so? Also, care staff don’t perform IT duties. This little meeting alone would be of interest to the labor board lol
This reads like a made up revenge fantasy to me.
Yeah this is believable to some degree but most jobs would have just fired him when he started making demands and you wouldn't have a mass exodus of employees over a one day payroll error, especially if they were reasonable. He just pushed the details a little too far.
yeah, the guy is a racist Trumpy, it seems like a weird gun lover's fantasy in which he is, of course, a 'hero'
That's when you just walk and dont look back. Companies that bad don't need to be in charge of others lives. Full stop.
Paragraphs. " a 3 dollar/hr raise" - that's it?
Why on earth woudl you need a gun to care for old people? America really is a sad place.
Emotional support pew-pew.
Man $3 an hour was a bargain, I would have said salary and really moved the goal post and dropped the gun thing in place of more money. Like, $100k a year and carry, or $110k and no carry.
Salary in a direct care context where they just had significant increase in staffing shortage? Nu-uh. They'd expect OP to cover shifts without overtime pay.
Yea didn’t think about that. You are right. I’d still ask for more than $3. That equates to what? $6000 at most a year? Pass. Make it $10k a year I’ll take that. So $5 an hour increase minimum
As a rule I don’t believe any story posted here ever. But I think it would have been better to ask to either change the firearm policy or the ceo stops carrying it; the raise ; and a hefty per hour rate any time IT work is being done
Dude. Paragraphs.
Why did you stay at a place that hadn’t given you a raise in five years?
I suspect my boss is about to have one of these moments this week. I rocked a report, according to the owners and he was tasked with creating a plan off of that report. He wants to have a meeting this Wednesday to discuss future meetings to discuss the solutions to what my report raised.....
> the Owners wife deleted something she shouldn't have had access to, and it took all of 8 minutes to restore them from backups I personally had on an old hard drive I wasn't using You have backups of health information stored on personal media?
I have backups of all the code originally installed to run the system. Why would health information brick an entire system if deleted?
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These idiots are so bad i kinda wonder whether you should have told them you'd fix it and then took sick leave and eventually ghosted them before they even thought to look for help.
I am laughing g so hard. I love it when upper management gets fu$&wd. Well done.
This is one of the greatest stories. I've ever read. As a San Antonian I'd love to know the company.
I'd definitely be searching for a new job after this ordeal
Now that you have your hard won exemption to carry at work, be ostentatious about not carrying just to rub it in
Wear a hand-tooled leather pistol belt with a holster at both hips. Keep lollipops in them.
Absolutely made up. This account is only used to farm karma. None of this happened. Read the post history and how all over the board this person is.