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| Thread: Buyers and bad employers | |
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Lady_Milena
Honorable
Known Hero
Grannie Sweet Cheeks
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posted February 06, 2006 10:50 AM |
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Poll Question:
Buyers and bad employers
Summer 2004 was one of the most horrible times of my life. I worked for an Italian (lady is a bad word for her, say) woman. We had her own small store and we sold pet souveniers - from leashes and pet cookies to hot plates, blankets, mugs, even wallpaper with dogs, cat and any other animal you could think of.
While working for her I lost around 16 lb and half of my hair. It sounds pathetic but I was THAT mistreated. My boss harrassed me. She didn't let us girls have a second job and she never gave us the hours she promised. What's more she didn't pay us correctly (say, we'd work 55 hours and she'd pay us for 52). Since we had no time cards of anything of the kind to legally prove the hours we did work, we could say nothing. I'm not even going in the fact that we weren't paid overtime rate.
We had no place to put our belongings while in the store. No microwave, no fridge. The girls and I offered to bring a little fridge of our own; she refused. Pair that with the fact that she was extremely domineering and brought us all down by setting an amount of sales we had to make per day that was absolutely out of touch with reality. I reached that limit twice the season. I never heard a good word about my performance, no matter how much I tried to please that tyrant.
The list of what she did to us could go on and on but I'm sure that by now you get the picture. I'm not going to elaborate on why we couldn't quit. I'll just say that she was also our landlord and quitting the job in high season with no where to live was just as bad as working for her.
See, Maria had zero interpersonal skills (she always wondered why for the 16 years she was in business not even one girl came back the next season). However, she was a great sales-person, I can't deny that. She had accumulated a good number of wealthy clients who would come to the store and spend hundreds for their pets. A lot of customers would buy because they liked us girls.
I oftened wondered wether customers would purchase and come back to the store if they only new what kind of monster was Maria.
What prompted this poll now is that last night a very close friend of mine expressed his concern. He works in a computer store down in California and they just caught the air that PC club is closing down stores. "People would go home on Wednesday," he said, "get ready for work tomorrow, on Thursday only to find the doors of the store bolted with a notice the store is closed down and their services won't be needed any more." No advance notice, no nothing. They couldn't even come to collect their personal belongings and found they outside in boxes. It's hard to believe but he showed me the topic in the forum and as I read, my disgust grew. I really sympathize with the poor people who had to go home early and tell their wives and children they lost their income.
I myself have always avoided shopping from places that had the bad reputation of harrassing / mistreating their staff. There is a huge supermarket close to us but I don't go there unless I have no choice because a friend of mine worked there and she was treated poorly to say the least.
Of course, some people don't care. They would buy no matter what, believing staff oppression is none of their business.
I'd like to hear what -you- would do in case you learn that the staff of a small or middle business is harrassed and treated very poorly.
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Russ
Promising
Supreme Hero
blah, blah, blah
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posted February 06, 2006 06:04 PM |
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Edited by Russ on 6 Feb 2006
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Just out of curiosity... say, all of her clients would stop shopping there. She would go out of business. That would mean you would lose your job and most likely get kicked out of your apartment as well. Why couldn't you just get a new job and a new apartment in the first place?
My first boss was quite anal. Well, guess what? I am not working there anymore. I've worked in 6 different places until I've settled for this one. Now on my 6-th job I like what I am doing, I have a good team, my boss is ok and I get paid well. Oh, and I can also post here while at work 
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Lady_Milena
Honorable
Known Hero
Grannie Sweet Cheeks
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posted February 07, 2006 12:15 AM |
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I actually tried to report her because of her shady deals. In the least she did not pay us overtime for what we worked over 40 hours and that's illegal in the States as per federal law. I also know of other stuff she has done. Not to mention that 2 weeks before the end of the season (ie the bonus in the contract) she alleged myself and my coworkers of bad performance and we got the sack. Thus, we had 22 hours to gather our belongings and leave the house. Needless to say, that's illegal too. It's also illegal to work with phantom charity organizations and send em broken goods for tax deduction.
See, this is a seasonal job. Moreover, we're foreign girls hired to work legally and the employer has the duty and obligation to treat us no differently than US citizens. You can understand why we'd want to work for 4 months in the summer and go back for the next semester in Uni. I would have called her on the carpet for harrassing us but in the end... all we wanted in the end was to go get through the season and get the hell out of her store.
Because we got our salaries bi-weekly and because we had no timecards or ANY proof at all we worked for her, we knew it was VERY likely that she'd refuse to pay us for the time worked. That's about $700, plus the housing because we paid monthly in advance, plus the house deposit because she refused to give us a receit for giving her said deposit. You can see how we'd lose over a thousand dollars just for quitting the job.
Not to mention that I worked in a TOWN. A tourist town lest you suppose it, bad reputation is a BAAAD thing as news of rats spread fast. She has been in town for 20 years, we were foreign students, our first summer there. In high season no one would have given us a half decent job.
Hope that answers your question.
P.S. In the end that wasn't so bad. I had to more to become interested in the licensing requirements for massage therapy. I became much more respected and I had a job I loved. She saw me a few times in my work robe downtown and her frozen smile just made my day.
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God does not need exist to save us...
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orbvius
Adventuring Hero
Oblivious
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posted February 08, 2006 05:14 PM |
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Quote:
I actually tried to report her because of her shady deals. In the least she did not pay us overtime for what we worked over 40 hours and that's illegal in the States as per federal law. I also know of other stuff she has done. Not to mention that 2 weeks before the end of the season (ie the bonus in the contract) she alleged myself and my coworkers of bad performance and we got the sack. Thus, we had 22 hours to gather our belongings and leave the house. Needless to say, that's illegal too. It's also illegal to work with phantom charity organizations and send em broken goods for tax deduction.
See, this is a seasonal job. Moreover, we're foreign girls hired to work legally and the employer has the duty and obligation to treat us no differently than US citizens. You can understand why we'd want to work for 4 months in the summer and go back for the next semester in Uni. I would have called her on the carpet for harrassing us but in the end... all we wanted in the end was to go get through the season and get the hell out of her store.
Because we got our salaries bi-weekly and because we had no timecards or ANY proof at all we worked for her, we knew it was VERY likely that she'd refuse to pay us for the time worked. That's about $700, plus the housing because we paid monthly in advance, plus the house deposit because she refused to give us a receit for giving her said deposit. You can see how we'd lose over a thousand dollars just for quitting the job.
Not to mention that I worked in a TOWN. A tourist town lest you suppose it, bad reputation is a BAAAD thing as news of rats spread fast. She has been in town for 20 years, we were foreign students, our first summer there. In high season no one would have given us a half decent job.
Hope that answers your question.
P.S. In the end that wasn't so bad. I had to more to become interested in the licensing requirements for massage therapy. I became much more respected and I had a job I loved. She saw me a few times in my work robe downtown and her frozen smile just made my day.
Although it is federal law but does that law applies to non-American citizens who are holding student passes?
Personally I dont really like sales job.
Good luck to your new life as well.
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kookastar
Honorable
Legendary Hero
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posted February 12, 2006 08:37 AM |
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I worked in hospitality for over ten years, so if you want to hear about bad pay and conditions I could talk for hours What I found though, was the staff tended to stick together and I have made bonds with people that will last a lifetime. We can still imitate the boss yelling at us for not plastic-wrapping a tray quickly enough or telling us "not to talk ourselves into it" when we were feeling sick with the flu!
I have since moved on, but have definately become stronger for all the ? I took to make the rent. I have also been a restaurant owner, who nearly went bankrupt, so understand the stress some bosses are under. I agree there is no excuse to be treated this way. My worst boss was a south african (no offence intended there are lots of nice sth africans out there) who had slaves and used to think that we were her slaves!
So I would not buy from a place if I was aware the staff were treated badly, but I must point out that we puchase items made by people under much worse conditions all the time. Imports from countries where children work for $2 (or less) an hour, while the people advertising the products are on million dollar deals.
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draco
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted February 14, 2006 04:46 PM |
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That sounds alot like Wal*Mart, I don't shop there, my family doesn't shop there. mind you I come from a Very Pro-Union family, my dad is a Union Rep and my uncle is the president of his union.
When you see how badly stores like that treat immigrants (legal or not) it tugs at your soul every time you step in the building.
if its only 4 months, then I personnaly would just tough it out, and call it a lost summer, probably will make you stronger in the end, and there really is nothing you can do, court is expensive, you could give her bad reviews online for the town. but other then that... I don't think there is much else possible.
on the bright side after a few months you know its over... time goes by pretty fast, and at the end of the year I would probably tell all the customers about whats really going on. and hope they don't come back.
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