Work Besties I asked you all to send in what you believe to be a workplace scam and here's what you said. website: www.loewhaleymedia.com Thank you for being here & Toodaloo for now! Laura
THIS. " We do not need more people, we are enough people, we just need to streamline our processes and eliminate redundant work" Whos gonna do that, when everyone is struggling
My former firm learned to do Christmas parties the correct way. They did a catered luncheon for the employees on company time. An employee could get their food (no alcohol) and then group together with whomever they wanted. Very casual. Employees were free to leave at any time once the luncheon began, and all employees who worked the first half of the day were paid for the entire day, whether they stayed or not.
On work trips, having to share 3 meals a day with coworkers. I'm already not home, missing quality food and my bed, the last thing I want is to work an 8-12 hr day + be forced to socialize with coworkers/negotiate restaurants 3x a day in what little free time I have.
@@prachisharma8237 Yeah, those are always fun: driving through traffic to and from the happy hour location, having coworkers encourage drinking when you'd rather not drink and drive. I prefer doing all my team building during work hours.
It’s even worse if you have dietary reductions, your company promises to accommodate you, and then they don’t. I’ve had to leave work conferences to get food because there was nothing for me to eat. I shouldn’t have to attend the events if I can’t be fed like everyone else.
I recently made a difficult choice to leave a role I loved due to what I felt was a toxic workplace, but have been second-guessing my decision (“was it really that bad?” etc.) This video helped reaffirm my choice because almost every point in the first 5 mins has been a problem from the very beginning, and only got worse throughout the last year. Vague policies (which change at the whim of management with no warning), using PTO for mandatory closures (which weren’t even announced as a closure until days before), not upfront about bonuses or pay structure (bc there wasn’t one), managers gossiping about my coworkers, no raises just increased workload…I could keep going, but thank you for making this video and reminding all of us to pursue and work for better than this💛
On the PTO, what I found most offensive was when we are told there is a Christmas period that is highly contested for taking leave, so you likely won’t be approved to take time off, and I say that’s okay I’d rather save my leave for later, but then we get told, everyone who is working during this Christmas period is working *less hours* and has to use 2 hrs of our leave per day. So I ended up losing part of the leave that I was trying to save. If we haven’t taken off time to be with our families, we should be rewarded with those 2 hours paid time off as a bonus, not taken from our leave. It’s so deceptive and scummy.
I had that happen a few times by rude hiring managers who want to hire me for an intermediate role instead of the senior position i applied for. I usually politely respond with "as long is pay at the same level as discussed, im not too concerned about title." And they get embarrassed because they tried to use the lower title to pay less and i caught it.
I hate pizza as a reward. 1) I don't eat dairy and meat, 2) it's almost always nasty cheap pizza, 3) on the very rare occasion that they order 1 plant-based pizza, everyone rushes it because it's obviously by far the tastiest one and there's nothing left for me.
Pizza is the lowest rung of event food possible. Out here in Silicon VAlley they even stopped doing pizza because it's so cheap and just shows you're not really trying to respect people's time for showing up at your event by cheaping out on the food.
I’m vegan and this has been my experience. In my case, my company rarely provides good vegan options, so I often have nothing to eat or have to leave events to get food. And it’s extra crappy when the non-veg people eat the food intended for us.
I think the purpose of an exit interview can be really useful. I was working for a woman who was just a horror. Quite a few people left because she was so bad and if it wasn’t for the exit interviews, the company wouldn’t have known why these people were leaving in droves. When they realize what the issue was, they made her a single contributor as opposed to a manager
About the surveys. My company does narrow the results down to departments bigger than 10 people. But then the manager goes and asks the group if they want to discuss and work on the specific problem someone anonymously pointed out. And if noone says anything, the topic will be dismissed. It is not anonymous if they make you raise your hand to get the problem fixed.
Those endless surveys are not anonymous when it's shared with management. Then your manager discusses the survey and specific responses in your team meeting.
My old boss was pissed that we all did the anonymous surveys and she did not like the results of said surveys. So she was passive aggressive about it to the entire team with the VP silently present. So much for praise publicly criticize privately (her words not mine).
Office social functions already turn my stomach. Adding alcohol is worse. The last Christmas party before covid, I was asked to drive the drunk bus, a 9 passenger van we have. The event was held at a local banquet hall, with dinner, speeches from the bigwigs, DJ and dancing later. As I'm sitting at a table in the back, a co-worker's drunk wife plopped into the chair next to me, and threw an arm around me. She then asked about a group of people at the next table who I didn't know, and wasn't able to answer her. She did not accept this answer. I was trying to get her off of me before her husband saw this. After several repetitions of this, she asked me why I wouldn't answer her. I replied "I've told you several times. Why won't you listen?" She got this Oh Shit look on her face, and left. Sigh of relief. The office social functions disappeared during covid, and never really came back. Fortunately, the office culture doesn't demand attendance of social functions. But I resolved never to go to one again, I don't care if they do call it mandatory. I would suggest that attending social functions with alcohol is just a bad idea.
I'm in the US. I work for a quasi-governmental agency. Our controller left in January, the CFO is taking his time to decide how he wants to re-organize the finance team to function as a team. In the meantime, he wanted me to be the lead, in communication with the outside accounting firm, and split the duties of the controller between two of us with no additional compensation. The other person was made a senior accountant; since I'm already a manager there's no higher position to give me. I still have my original duties, which include after hours conversation with the CFO, and the additional duties but no compensation. Writing this I realized I feel resentful that I've not even been given additional compensation.
@susansuewwilliams, we do most things out of fear. And the fact that we may not know our rights. Just remember, the first red flag in any company, during any interview saying, “We like a family here.” That’s code switching for, “We expect you to do things for us out the goodness of your heart.”
Several years ago my sister went to her employers and said well you can pay some stranger $35 an hour to run your store wrong or you can pay me $35 an hour to run it right. She got the job and the salary. Even after they retired and their son inherited the store she still has authority above his because technically she still works for his parents. If he gives her any grief she just tells him your parents hired me to keep you from ruining this place and that's what I'm doing.
my last job, weekly meetings in which we were told the same negative things week after week, mean while i'm not getting my work done, they could have just sent emails out to everyone 🙄
I used to regularly have my boss complain that I didn't take my lunch time and instead chose to leave earlier: 1) the lunch was 30 min and I'm a slow eater, there's no way I can finish a meal in that time. 2) I live in a very high traffic city and leaving even 30 min earlier can make a big difference. 3) nowadays, bosses don't care and I'm booked in back-to-back meetings all day every day including through lunch. It's a scam and it always was.
"people die from exposure" is a good line to have ready. How am I feeling? Kinda rubbish actually. Still suffering from a broken brain, still unable to work, pretty sure my once-promissing career is over... You know, the usual.
Unpaid On Call...UGH! Worked in tech for 17 years and they NEVER paid us for on call, unless something happened and you had to respond or go in. Corporate pushed back on this all the time. Our director had an unwritten rule that if you did get a call always charge 4OT hours just for responding to the call, and whatever time you spent going in to the office, add 2 hours OT
This is definitely a scam: You have job A and are paid that rate for job A. Then they decide they are going to put you in job B for the foreseeable future but because you aren't "officially" in job B you aren't paid the rate for job B, and it's a higher rate.
I had a boss who would ask sweetly for favors (nothing inappropriate, things I would have done anyway), and offer a quid pro quo. So, I'd do the thing, because I would have anyway, and I NEVER got the thing I was supposed to. Standard response, "I don't know what you're talking about, I don't remember saying anything like that." Same boss: if he had to schedule a meeting on an issue he didn't want to talk about, would push it off as long as possible, then schedule it for 15 minutes before he had a meeting with his boss. Then he shows up with a 10- minute opening statement. So you've got two minutes before he has to leave to get ready for his next meeting. Same boss: would schedule meetings involving discussion of paperwork, and not distributing the paperwork in a timely manner, so he was the only one who could be prepared for the discussion.
I had a set of skills that were needed. My boss was a manager. He was always furious that I received a significant raise and bonus every year when he was given much less and "Promises". One year he told the bosses he had to make more than me or he would go. I had a new boss in 30 days. We are all replaceable but some easier than others.
Re: Christmas parties - Definite scam; every place I've been that has one all they are is a small (sometimes seems the entire point of the enterprise) clique of alcoholics demanding all their colleagues affirm their addiction and how "normal" they all are and how "normal" the situation is.
I worked for a certain company and when I left they made me do an exit interview. I firmly refused to answer any of the questions. The reasons? There were certain issues in the corporate culture and in the environment that prevented me from doing my job properly. I reached out to my superiors for assistance regarding them. There was no assistance, they told me to either find another job or stop complaining. I did the first. So, what was the purpose of the exit interview? They did not want to know about the issues, let alone address them. My lucky guess: someone from HR thought that doing this would make their department look more competent.
My former employers had a very strict clothing policy for clerical staff, and mostly mandatory christmas parties. I'm so thankful the one christmas season I worked there it was mandatory. The dress code was also insufferable. It was work provided shirts, with black or dark grey slacks only. The couldn't be wide legs, or any patterns or variations. The worst part was being told I wasn't allowed to wear a headwrap, not even an approved color. Somehow covering your hair isn't professional enough for a medical facility. I shed a lot of hair, so really it would have been to their benefit. but alas, apparently the policies were still stuck in the 1950s and I should have just been glad they didn't force me into a skirt. My supervisor also tried to police my bathroom breaks and tried to get management to make a big fuss, going so far as to count how many times i went to the restroom in a work day. So glad I left them, the money was not worth the stress that led to severe migraines.
The unpaid lunch 'scam'. This is usually the result of local labour laws. In Canada, at least, after 5 hours, a minimum of 30 minutes is deducted from your work hours for a break.
Maybe it's a phrasing thing, but the law says you have to be given a 30 minute unpaid break for every work shift of at least 5 consecutive hours. If you cannot disconnect (if you need to stay reachable by your employer) then this break needs to be paid. Are we saying the same thing ? It's just in my head there is a difference between "30 minutes is deducted" and "you have to be given 30 minutes", but it could very well be a me issue
Birthday Clubs: I know an office where everyone was encouraged to "donate" just $5 a year towards paying the cost of celebrating a team member's birthday (cake, card, utensils). When your turn comes up in several months to a year, you get a birthday cake in your name, a slice, utensils, and coffee. The math is 30 people x $20 = $600. SCAM. For $20, I'll buy my own cake.
The in-office attendance thing is not that straightforward. Yes, an experienced, seasoned employee is likely more productive working remote. For example, a senior level software developer. But that is just for that one narrow job function. One that could arguably be offshored for much less money. But what gets lost is that senior employee's ability to mentor junior employees one-on-one. Conversing over Slack/Teams and on video calls is not the same as sitting next to someone to cross-train and solve problems. Again, it is the junior or entry level people that miss out. An experienced employee that argues that they are more productive locked in a room alone has proven that they've been promoted to their level of incompetence because they are unable/unwilling to make the leap from high-functioning individual contributor to "mentor".
"5% -- other duties as assigned by {director}" I just had my performance eval. That 5% was over a dozen projects that were tenuously tangential to my PD.
My favorite is "due to business needs", I question to see the policy in writing what defines business needs and states what level of management is authorized to initiate 'business needs' activity.
Dress code: My dad worked IT in the 90s and was required to wear a suit per dress code. The people in the department started buying the cheapest suits possible because they would get destroyed while running network cables and things. I think he said that a suit lasted a month or 2. Christmas parties: Last company had christmas parties as fully optional. Saturday night, alcohol centered. Hotel room provided for you and guest for the end of the night. Lunch breaks: At least in the US, they depend on the job and it might vary by state. Office is different than factory or fast food. Office is not really nationally regulated, but factory and fast food are regulated in some form. Paid parking: My sister works in downtown and has to pay $5 daily for parking 3 days a week (works from home the other 2). The money is not going to the company, but the company (or city) that owns the garage.
A company I worked at sent out a survey link by email saying it was anonymous. A contractor at the company didn’t get the email but wanted to provide feedback, so they asked the IT guy to send them the link, so the IT guy forwarded the link from their email. Later, when the IT guy went to fill in the survey, he found it had already been filled in with the contractor’s answers. Meaning that the link in the email was unique and tied directly to each user’s email. Now the company will read that “anonymous” feedback and assume it came from the IT guy… I was also a contractor and didn’t get the email, but once I heard the story from the IT guy I said “no thanks”, don’t need that.
Have you talked about "Self Evaluation Forms"? I've always declined to do them (for myself or for any committee I chair). To me, that's what management is paid for. Out of hours work: At my small agency, I finally had it agreed that ANY time spent at the office on a day off was worth one day in lieu. Even if you were only in for an hour, your whole day off was wrecked. Pizza and parking: here in the UK, occasionally the government is so squeezed for funds that it looks at ways of taxing new things. One day the tax man was in the office and, hearing about how we got pizza in about four times a year, asked for an account of how many slices each employee had. The financial director had the good judgement and nerve to show the inspector to the door. Nothing more was heard on that. Parking. This is tough at places like public schools and public hospitals. There is no obligation to provide parking for staff, but just try to develop the land used for parking for a new maternity unit or sports hall. . . . !!!
Experience is overrated. It always reminds me of: "We take your money and our experience and make it our money and your experience. " As for exposure. Ask artist of any kind of exposure. Then as a lanlord if they can pay their rent with exposure. Whatever happened to: "I do something that will benefit you, and in exchange you do something of equal value that will benefit me." Nowadays it seems more like: "Lie your way to success while taking advantage of others as much as possible." I guess we worship money so much that we do not longer care about integrity.
My favorite was they brought in ice-cream and asked one person why not. He was a diabetic. That manager was so embarrassed he disappeared and came back later with so much jerkey for that guy.
Surveys with questions that do not address the issues, then when they get blasted on those surveys, they recall the survey and issue another one 🤣. Evaluations where either there is no middle ground for "meets expectations" so you are either rated as an over achiever or a lacky, or evaluations with unreasonable expectations to achieve "perform above expectations" where either situation results in an annual raise that rewards one person with 4% and the rest with 3% or less regardless of performance. Another big one is paying per mile on a personal vehicle, then rapidly changing to cheap company vehicles...essentially sticking their employees with a car note on a car they rarely use, or the inverse where they take vehicles away they promised during the hiring process, forcing employees to purchase a vehicle for work use. I used to laugh at The Office until The Office became my office. Then I left and laughed again.
1:35 YES! You're spot on with this description, and it happens far too often in the workplace. While it's lovely that companies can support you in developing skillsets that will in turn directly benefit your work at the company, how they don't pay you for the extra tasks required to get the certification/degree/etc. is really frustrating.
I work in civil engineering, and things are a little complicated with how we pay. Well not really, but the way it is makes changing it up really difficult. There are a couple of ways companies can bill for projects, most commonly lump sum or fee schedule. The internal commonality is that people still get paid based on time. Here's why it's muddy. There's no true "work load" associated with it. Sure, the project requires a specific thing to get done, but there are so many subtasks that you just can't account for or assign an individual value to. How do you tell the client "we think this task is worth this much money for this person who did it" when the client doesn't necessarily know that that task was a part of the project? That's why we bill hourly, especially since there is always something else to be done on that project or on another project.
I hate "gathering events." Unless I am getting paid I won't attend. I don't mix personal and business lives. And when I am forced to, that's when I know it's time to move on.
Employers don't invest in the employee as much these days. In order to hire and start an employee is expensive for the employer so its cost effective for the employer to provide a healthy work environment. The employer offers the experience and the learning opportunity for employees as long as the employee decides to stay. They employee needs to look at jobs just as that. Its an opportunity to learn but as soon as you see the scam, its time to move on... I have learned so much from your content. I didn't realize when I was young that employers sell the dream. When they are done with you they try to make you quit. A real mind F.
5:56 This one really gets me. One of my bosses would manage by rumor. I'd come into his office and he'd say, "I think I'm going to have to get on X. He really isn't doing what he's supposed to be doing.' Then, I assume I was supposed to go running and tell him. Too bad, that's not me.
Does anyone else think that any sort of office job should just close down on December 24th and reopen January 2nd? I've yet to work through that week, but I can already tell that a lot of people will likely use their PTO, and productivity just won't be very high. My company pays us for half a day on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so we only get 3 business days off. I also realize that the amount of business days between The 24th and the 2nd varies year to year, but it can be as short as one business week. Will it really hurt the company that much to take a week off, especially if every other entity we work with also takes the week off and we have massive profits? I just think holiday time and PTO needs to be reassessed.
The Paying for parking at your workplace is complete BS! I work at an Arena (so AHL hockey and concerts, plus the occasional comedy show, kids show, cheerleading fest or a random one off basketball show) and yea, the job is already part time at the best of times, some months we'll get only 4 shifts total, some are more, really depends on the month. All of that said you'd think they'd designate the 2 back lots (that are right near the staff entrance) as staff lots. They don't, and for the most part, we have to pay for parking. Thankfully the 1 parking enforcement person for the evening shift for that area is more or less cool with just looking the other way and letting us park there for free but if the company that owns the lot (not the company that employs me and owns the arena) had their way, yea we'd all be paying. It's like $12 per shift but honestly, worth it, way better than other parking options where I'd have to walk nearly a block or more, when it's chaotic after a game and you've been on your feet for hours, you just want to sit down as soon as possible and get outta there.
I can't eat the Pizza either for dietary reasons as well. My boss lets me get something else on the menu. I don't drink either and I am a lot of fun to hang out with. I feel the same about alcohol in work events. My "favorite" scam is the "you can't get top marks on your evaluation, but you are a great employee and meet all of our expectations." like I seriously had to DOWNGRADE my last evaluation because the company didn't like my direct supervisor's score. So my response is you get the employee you have on the evaluation, not the one you could have.
uncompensated on-call on a morning commuter train listening to a passenger providing detailed Help Desk support to a user as a former IT professional I learnt a lot about that organisatiuon - as did any one else in the train carriage who cared to listen
Those anonymous surveys, ugh. When I worked at Walmart the anonymous survey knew the answers were coming from a female full-time first shift stock room employee age 20-29. Cuz that's so many people, right? At that time, first shift stock at my store was a 60+ year old man, a college boy, a 50+ year old woman, and me. Edit- I've only done an exit interview once. It was at my first co-op placement as an engineering student. Apparently at some point in that interview I concretely agreed to come back for the next co-op placement. I interviewed for other positions and then the day before my school's "match day" when we got our interview results, I got called to the co-op office to sign my contract to return. I said I didn't want to and hadn't agreed. The co-op office said apparently I had, and now my hands were tied. They had already told the other companies I interview with that I was off the table.
My son applied for a Supervisor position on the internal company job board. He interviewed and got the job. Then they told him it was mistakenly listed as a sup position. They no longer have any dup positions. When we looked out on both the internal and external company job board still shows many many are listed as superior level.
One of the scams you mentioned is also known as the bait and switch. Definitely a scam. I worked for a company a long time ago that did that often. In the job interview as well as in the job posting they would tell you what the job entailed and the responsibilities. But then once they started, it was a whole different story. In addition to what they were told, there would be several other responsibilities as well as essentially taking on other responsibilities where the person ended up filling 2 or 3 or 4 jobs. Typically people would quit very soon after. As a company just be up front about the job and don't waste the time of other people.
17:55 no purpose, my company takes exit interviews. They don’t take any notes, they don’t ask for a written text that explains the employees story, they don’t disclose what the employee said in the exit interview and ultimately there is nothing done about what was discussed between those two people. Yes, exit interview is a big scam.
Work related travel needs covered. The employer doesn't want to compensate for all the time going to/from the airport, waiting, they don't want to pay for upgraded business class seats...so they are forcing those of us over 170# to be uncomfortable in a plane (and you gain more muscle weight as you age and grow wider), they don't want to compensate for the time spent during dinner with coworkers or clients talking work related topics after the workday, and certainly none of your home base costs (like lost gym membership use opportunity). Some even go as far as expecting you to drive and park at the airport- exposing your car to potential ding and paint damage or even a stolen car. No wonder managers try to make it seem exciting for younger workers to go on work travel!
I was given multiple other jobs on top of my normal work with the lines “ we thought of you first for this” and “this will look great on your annual review and for future promotion” and then just ended up being completely overwhelmed and then penalized when I told them I was going to work my wage and they could assign someone else the tasks.
13:55 - A Client I worked for had this where you donate $5 to wear jeans on Friday, but the money went towards the 'fun committee' where they did things like golf, picnics, cook offs, etc. They would hire catering companies to celebrate gender reveals, retirements, and even new hires... One of the staff owns a cake business and she would make a few cakes to celebrate Birthdays and Work Anniversaries every month. It was actually one of the best companies I did work for, it seemed they cared about their staff. But I know some of their staff felt differently... but I was a third-party so I saw it differently. I didn't work directly for them (worked as a provider that they had and was providing support onsite full-time). I hear now they got bought out by the largest company in their niche and majority of people left because the culture declined and now there are more red flags than ever.
I had a place that gave you a set amount for being on call regardless of calls happening. At first I thought it was great but bugs in the code that forced us get up in the night were never fixed as it cost dev time and we were getting paid regardless. Every Saturday at 10pm and again at 11pm… to get anything fixed you needed the outage to pose a financial risk
Yes, I've worked for companies that offer 3 weeks PTO, but co-optes one of those for a year-end shutdown because they realized how much $$$ they saved by not having the lights on during a period when most employees were taking off anyway.
I got told all the time for a year, yes your promotion you were hired for is coming, yet here is your laptop and here is work for that promotion you need to do. 😡🤬
I work in IT, staff surveys are sent out with tokenised links - this means we can see exactly who has completed the survey. Also, when you have large companies like Gallup, remember that the data shows the teams, the size and employee count - it's very easy as a manager to understand who gave poor results. The best advice I can offer is to ignore surveys - nothing gets done, they'll quote NPS but the main topics they look for are productivity, tools for the job, and who are the providing results with the highest detractors - this then gets used for consultation mapping if a re-org is imminent.
Concerning alcohol: I was part of the kitchen staff in a big luxury hotel (part of a medium sized european chain) in Germany. During the late shift (working from 14:00 to 22:30), we had the tradition to gather all in our small outside staff area and have a small beer (0,3 l) after the main rush was done to settle down. You could opt for a soft drink and participation was not mandatory. But this calm few minutes were great as a highpoint after a hard shift right before we went to clean the kitchen and went home on time.
The lunch thing is so real, but it's a law. Worker protections they say. I want my choice to not eat lunch (cause I do eat breakfast) and just snack throughout the day while working. 9 hours is too much... Not to mention 1 hour commute 😩
I'm in the UK and unpaid, mandatory lunch breaks are the norm. I've also fallen into the trap of thinking HR is there for the employee. I definitely no longer think that. In fact, in my current role, it's blindingly obvious that they're there solely to protect the Partners.
A person is available outside of normal work hours for a long time. Then they reduce their availability to normal work hours. Is it really the person's fault? I think the problem is the employer built up an unreasonable expectation.
Great series! And I love your "Toodaloo" shorts; they're excellent. Dress codes: Does the job involve dealing in person with customers, vendors, etc, or are you stuck in a cubicle by yourself all the time? Two totally different requirements for dress. While one is Business Professional, the other may be t-shirt and jeans - both perfectly appropriate for their respective roles. Dressing to satisfy some totally subjective bureaucratic "Company Policy" is just bullshit. Career Guilt Trip: The proper response to anyone laying a guilt trip on you would be "Mind your own damn business."
Devil's Advocate (because I largely agree with you) the argument would be that you may not have direct contact with customers, but customers may well be in the office for meetings with other staff members and if they see you walking to the printer / coffee machine in your t-shirt and jeans when the company is trying to give off a more smart professional vibe it will harm that impression they are trying to make. I think in maybe 20 years things will be quite different as the younger generations who seem to have less hang-ups about formal dress codes etc become the bosses more and more, similar with WFH, but for now they do have an argument - not one that convinces me but one that I don't think is completely unfounded either...
Company events without accommodating everyone’s dietary needs. I’ve been required to attend multiple company retreats out of state. My employer asked for dietary restrictions, and I told them months in advance and offered to help with planning so they could accommodate my needs. Then when I get to the event, there is nothing for me to eat. Not everyone eats meat or animal products or gluten or nuts. It’s a scam that companies demand attendance to these events, and then some people are left with literally zero options for food. Either have universally accommodating food options or don’t make events mandatory if you have no intention of feeding everyone fairly.
My current job did a bait-and-switch with my job hire, required unpaid on-call and I was called "not a team player" when I set boundaries (and received poor performance reviews because of it), has vague "and other duties as assigned" which I was almost fired over when I attempted to stand up for myself on a command that I felt wasn't in my scope of responsibilities, and forces us to take PTO for mandatory shutdown days under the threat of being written up or fired. Also, I've used our survey software and it definitely collects machine name and IP address.
I'm from israel and it's shocking for me that in the us 5 PTO (not include the mandatory days) is a thing. In Israel, the minimum by law is 12 additional PTO tonthe mandatory days, and many companies provide even more days. For example, I get 19 additional days.
My employer broad-banded and it backfired on them. Now HR hires people who fit the broad band who will take the least allowable contractual salary, even if they have no idea how to do the job they're hired for - and under negotiated job protections, if they make it past three months, they can't get rid of the employee. The best they can do is try to find something the employee can do, in the same general location!
Work begins at 06:00. You sign in at 06:01. The employer docs you the 29 minutes you worked but wont let you work the one minute later than the end of work day.
Biggest one I've found is job descriptions for interviews. Had one company rep get about at me when I went into an interview where they had combined THREE separate roles into one position because since they posted the first position, two more people quit.
14:29 Having a dress code but you are also expected to take trash to the compactor, set up and break down events, do the mail. Sorry I am not putting on dress shoes and spending on expensive clothes when I take in the mail everyday.
Yeah, they lied to you about how people get promotion easily when qualified but the manager has to get the senior manager, then the director to be on boarded first. After that, a round if justification has to be presented to higher management level to sign off. Which is very very impossible because those people dont have the time to entertain every minion. But its the policy for a promotion
I am very suspicious of compliments in the workplace, tripe-so when they come from management. It's basically corporate lovebombing / flattery in an effort to shoehorn more work into your schedule. I had one project/account manager that would use the flattery tactic to basically create the saviour complex with the more naive developers. They'd forget about promises to clients until the last minute, then say "but you're awesome at coding, your a rockstar, it'll take you 10 minutes" in an attempt to cover for their incompetence.
Retail stores force their part-time floor staff to buy their products to show them while they are selling. Buying a couple of products is OK, but they push to buy more. Particularly, those stores that sell high-end jewelry that expect and request staff to purchase pieces.
When I left my job I got a set of exit interview questions from HR and another set from my manager. It really felt like an extra homework assignment on top of me finishing my work and transitioning duties. I was expected to type out all the answers so they’d have documentation in my file, they didn’t care enough to talk with me in person. Plus they didn’t listen to me while I was there so…😅 I didn’t do them.
"Winter Holiday Party" that happens in *February* to get around any accusations or implications that it happens around the time of any religious festival that happens at/around the end of the year. So it's not a "Christmas party" but it also pits employees against going to a work-related thing where attendance is expected, but you figure that Jan 29th-Feb. 4th would be a good time to take the family skiing at a resort that involves plane tickets and lodging and...
Having worked in manufacturing; I can see the point of a certain level of dress code (things like no baggy pants/shirts, stud earrings only, no watches/bracelets/rings, things like that). Machinery does like to grab loose/dangling things and doesn't much care if you're attached. So it becomes a safety issue. But if you are requiring a uniform or certain level of dress for "presentation" purposes (especially if it's beyond business casual or maybe a basic suite/woman's equivalent [I'm a guy, I have a hard enough time with mens fasion I don't know how the ladies do it]) then it should either be provided by the company or there should be a set, inflation adjusted, stipend attached to the position for the purchase. Additionally, if the company provides clothing there should be enough provided of both hot and cold weather uniforms and accessories to get the worker through an entire work week plus extra (in case of overtime, damage, spills, etc). No more of this you get two, one in the wash and one wearing, and if you want more you have to buy them BS.
the lunch break stuff is often legal stuff at least iin germany you need to take it after working more then x hours and it is unpaid. If there is no lunch break on your time card but you worked more than these hours then your employer can get into a lot of trouble so they enforce the break time.
I'm in two minds about the lunch break. I firmly believe everyone need breaks intersperced throughout your day (especially for a screen-worker). I just do not believe, no matter how much they kid themselves, 7hrs straight is just not productive. It's like those people that say "I can operate on 4hrs sleep" The fairest approach is to say it should be 1 hour, but do it how you see fit: 60x1 | 30x2 | 20x3 | 15x4 | 10x5 or whatever denomination totals 60mins. Right now I do 30-40 mins for lunch, plus 15x2 or 20x1.
Hi I used to do surveys for company's. They are NOT anonymous. If they see something truly disturbing they can request who it is. They can also manipulate data to appear better by omitting or manipulating responses. It's grimey but it happens. Of course of that's specifically requested we did our best to discourage it with the ethics speech but uh yea. . .it happens. What I saw the most were different results - 1 dataset to present to employees and another for shareholders/board/executive mgmt, etc.
Was told I needed to train to run 3 different pieces of equipment. Wanted me to do this at night (after hours) and I needed to pay for it myself. Okay. BUT didn't want to give me a paycheck to show that I had spent 1,140 for each of these certifications. When they told me to run said equipment " I said that it was not on my resume and they didn't pay for it, thus I wouldn't use those skills at this job. I also told them that I was looking for a better job and as soon as I found one" I was leaving this cheap one". I got hired on to another job, that paid me 11.50 an hour more. That was the very next day. Worked for them for ten years. Loved that job. Moved to another state. Anyway.
My company doesn't do shutdown PTO in the way you described. Each year, we get 4 shifts worth of PTO every Jan 1st, and we steadily accrue 3 more shifts of PTO by Dec 31st. There were no shutdowns in 2022 or 2023, so we could use those PTOs any day we needed. Any left over after Dec 31st would get paid out to us in a Jan paycheck. In 2024, we've already had 14 days of shutdown, and it seems likely there's going to be another 7 days of shutdown in December. We were able to opt to use our PTO or Vacation or file for unemployment (which came to be about 30% of our pay for each shutdown). Everyone who depended on full pay for their bills hated that the company was essentially choosing when they were going on "vacation."
Being mandated to attend a team building meeting in person (in another state), offers compensation but strongly suggest the cheapest flights and hotels. Basically putting a cap. Suggesting the frontier flight of $50 versus the Delta Comfort + flight of $250. SCAM!!
Constantly understaffed because they don't replace staff who leave; Dumping the extra work on others in the same role.
THIS. " We do not need more people, we are enough people, we just need to streamline our processes and eliminate redundant work" Whos gonna do that, when everyone is struggling
My former firm learned to do Christmas parties the correct way. They did a catered luncheon for the employees on company time. An employee could get their food (no alcohol) and then group together with whomever they wanted. Very casual. Employees were free to leave at any time once the luncheon began, and all employees who worked the first half of the day were paid for the entire day, whether they stayed or not.
I agree that you should not drink at business parties because of liability😅
This is what my company does and I love it. Also, there are PRIZES! Last year’s big prize was a 50” flat screen. 😊
On work trips, having to share 3 meals a day with coworkers. I'm already not home, missing quality food and my bed, the last thing I want is to work an 8-12 hr day + be forced to socialize with coworkers/negotiate restaurants 3x a day in what little free time I have.
don't forget happy hours on offsite
@@prachisharma8237 Yeah, those are always fun: driving through traffic to and from the happy hour location, having coworkers encourage drinking when you'd rather not drink and drive. I prefer doing all my team building during work hours.
@@thebowandbullet Activities with co-workers are work. They should be during work hours and, of course, paid.
It’s even worse if you have dietary reductions, your company promises to accommodate you, and then they don’t. I’ve had to leave work conferences to get food because there was nothing for me to eat. I shouldn’t have to attend the events if I can’t be fed like everyone else.
"For this anonymous survey, please enter your name, social security number, shoe size and blood type...but don't worry, it's totally anonymous!"
I recently made a difficult choice to leave a role I loved due to what I felt was a toxic workplace, but have been second-guessing my decision (“was it really that bad?” etc.) This video helped reaffirm my choice because almost every point in the first 5 mins has been a problem from the very beginning, and only got worse throughout the last year. Vague policies (which change at the whim of management with no warning), using PTO for mandatory closures (which weren’t even announced as a closure until days before), not upfront about bonuses or pay structure (bc there wasn’t one), managers gossiping about my coworkers, no raises just increased workload…I could keep going, but thank you for making this video and reminding all of us to pursue and work for better than this💛
On the PTO, what I found most offensive was when we are told there is a Christmas period that is highly contested for taking leave, so you likely won’t be approved to take time off, and I say that’s okay I’d rather save my leave for later, but then we get told, everyone who is working during this Christmas period is working *less hours* and has to use 2 hrs of our leave per day. So I ended up losing part of the leave that I was trying to save. If we haven’t taken off time to be with our families, we should be rewarded with those 2 hours paid time off as a bonus, not taken from our leave. It’s so deceptive and scummy.
Let's call bait and switch job postings what they are: DISHONEST AND DECEPTIVE. It's a scam and representative of that company's culture of deceit.
I had that happen a few times by rude hiring managers who want to hire me for an intermediate role instead of the senior position i applied for. I usually politely respond with "as long is pay at the same level as discussed, im not too concerned about title." And they get embarrassed because they tried to use the lower title to pay less and i caught it.
Nothing will function in lies😅
Deception works. Thats why publicity exist.
I've been on the other side of "anonymous" surveys where I was shocked to see managers being given all the information of who filled out the surveys.
How managers keep a 'mental note' of good performance but strict numbers and software to measure productivity.
I hate pizza as a reward. 1) I don't eat dairy and meat, 2) it's almost always nasty cheap pizza, 3) on the very rare occasion that they order 1 plant-based pizza, everyone rushes it because it's obviously by far the tastiest one and there's nothing left for me.
Pizza is the lowest rung of event food possible. Out here in Silicon VAlley they even stopped doing pizza because it's so cheap and just shows you're not really trying to respect people's time for showing up at your event by cheaping out on the food.
I’m vegan and this has been my experience. In my case, my company rarely provides good vegan options, so I often have nothing to eat or have to leave events to get food. And it’s extra crappy when the non-veg people eat the food intended for us.
I think the purpose of an exit interview can be really useful. I was working for a woman who was just a horror. Quite a few people left because she was so bad and if it wasn’t for the exit interviews, the company wouldn’t have known why these people were leaving in droves. When they realize what the issue was, they made her a single contributor as opposed to a manager
About the surveys. My company does narrow the results down to departments bigger than 10 people. But then the manager goes and asks the group if they want to discuss and work on the specific problem someone anonymously pointed out. And if noone says anything, the topic will be dismissed. It is not anonymous if they make you raise your hand to get the problem fixed.
Those endless surveys are not anonymous when it's shared with management. Then your manager discusses the survey and specific responses in your team meeting.
My old boss was pissed that we all did the anonymous surveys and she did not like the results of said surveys. So she was passive aggressive about it to the entire team with the VP silently present. So much for praise publicly criticize privately (her words not mine).
Office social functions already turn my stomach. Adding alcohol is worse. The last Christmas party before covid, I was asked to drive the drunk bus, a 9 passenger van we have. The event was held at a local banquet hall, with dinner, speeches from the bigwigs, DJ and dancing later. As I'm sitting at a table in the back, a co-worker's drunk wife plopped into the chair next to me, and threw an arm around me. She then asked about a group of people at the next table who I didn't know, and wasn't able to answer her. She did not accept this answer. I was trying to get her off of me before her husband saw this. After several repetitions of this, she asked me why I wouldn't answer her. I replied "I've told you several times. Why won't you listen?" She got this Oh Shit look on her face, and left. Sigh of relief. The office social functions disappeared during covid, and never really came back. Fortunately, the office culture doesn't demand attendance of social functions. But I resolved never to go to one again, I don't care if they do call it mandatory. I would suggest that attending social functions with alcohol is just a bad idea.
I'm in the US.
I work for a quasi-governmental agency.
Our controller left in January, the CFO is taking his time to decide how he wants to re-organize the finance team to function as a team.
In the meantime, he wanted me to be the lead, in communication with the outside accounting firm, and split the duties of the controller between two of us with no additional compensation.
The other person was made a senior accountant; since I'm already a manager there's no higher position to give me.
I still have my original duties, which include after hours conversation with the CFO, and the additional duties but no compensation.
Writing this I realized I feel resentful that I've not even been given additional compensation.
@susansuewwilliams, we do most things out of fear. And the fact that we may not know our rights. Just remember, the first red flag in any company, during any interview saying, “We like a family here.” That’s code switching for, “We expect you to do things for us out the goodness of your heart.”
Stick up for yourself
Several years ago my sister went to her employers and said well you can pay some stranger $35 an hour to run your store wrong or you can pay me $35 an hour to run it right. She got the job and the salary. Even after they retired and their son inherited the store she still has authority above his because technically she still works for his parents. If he gives her any grief she just tells him your parents hired me to keep you from ruining this place and that's what I'm doing.
my last job, weekly meetings in which we were told the same negative things week after week, mean while i'm not getting my work done, they could have just sent emails out to everyone 🙄
I used to regularly have my boss complain that I didn't take my lunch time and instead chose to leave earlier: 1) the lunch was 30 min and I'm a slow eater, there's no way I can finish a meal in that time. 2) I live in a very high traffic city and leaving even 30 min earlier can make a big difference. 3) nowadays, bosses don't care and I'm booked in back-to-back meetings all day every day including through lunch. It's a scam and it always was.
it's a guilt trip to have to go to workplace Christmas parties 🙄
I never go.
"people die from exposure" is a good line to have ready.
How am I feeling? Kinda rubbish actually. Still suffering from a broken brain, still unable to work, pretty sure my once-promissing career is over... You know, the usual.
Unpaid On Call...UGH! Worked in tech for 17 years and they NEVER paid us for on call, unless something happened and you had to respond or go in. Corporate pushed back on this all the time. Our director had an unwritten rule that if you did get a call always charge 4OT hours just for responding to the call, and whatever time you spent going in to the office, add 2 hours OT
This is definitely a scam: You have job A and are paid that rate for job A. Then they decide they are going to put you in job B for the foreseeable future but because you aren't "officially" in job B you aren't paid the rate for job B, and it's a higher rate.
I had a boss who would ask sweetly for favors (nothing inappropriate, things I would have done anyway), and offer a quid pro quo. So, I'd do the thing, because I would have anyway, and I NEVER got the thing I was supposed to. Standard response, "I don't know what you're talking about, I don't remember saying anything like that."
Same boss: if he had to schedule a meeting on an issue he didn't want to talk about, would push it off as long as possible, then schedule it for 15 minutes before he had a meeting with his boss. Then he shows up with a 10- minute opening statement. So you've got two minutes before he has to leave to get ready for his next meeting.
Same boss: would schedule meetings involving discussion of paperwork, and not distributing the paperwork in a timely manner, so he was the only one who could be prepared for the discussion.
I had a set of skills that were needed. My boss was a manager. He was always furious that I received a significant raise and bonus every year when he was given much less and "Promises". One year he told the bosses he had to make more than me or he would go. I had a new boss in 30 days. We are all replaceable but some easier than others.
Re: Christmas parties - Definite scam; every place I've been that has one all they are is a small (sometimes seems the entire point of the enterprise) clique of alcoholics demanding all their colleagues affirm their addiction and how "normal" they all are and how "normal" the situation is.
HR in my last work place always blamed the victim 🤷🏿♀️
I worked for a certain company and when I left they made me do an exit interview. I firmly refused to answer any of the questions. The reasons? There were certain issues in the corporate culture and in the environment that prevented me from doing my job properly. I reached out to my superiors for assistance regarding them. There was no assistance, they told me to either find another job or stop complaining. I did the first. So, what was the purpose of the exit interview? They did not want to know about the issues, let alone address them. My lucky guess: someone from HR thought that doing this would make their department look more competent.
My former employers had a very strict clothing policy for clerical staff, and mostly mandatory christmas parties. I'm so thankful the one christmas season I worked there it was mandatory.
The dress code was also insufferable. It was work provided shirts, with black or dark grey slacks only. The couldn't be wide legs, or any patterns or variations. The worst part was being told I wasn't allowed to wear a headwrap, not even an approved color. Somehow covering your hair isn't professional enough for a medical facility. I shed a lot of hair, so really it would have been to their benefit. but alas, apparently the policies were still stuck in the 1950s and I should have just been glad they didn't force me into a skirt.
My supervisor also tried to police my bathroom breaks and tried to get management to make a big fuss, going so far as to count how many times i went to the restroom in a work day. So glad I left them, the money was not worth the stress that led to severe migraines.
The unpaid lunch 'scam'. This is usually the result of local labour laws. In Canada, at least, after 5 hours, a minimum of 30 minutes is deducted from your work hours for a break.
Maybe it's a phrasing thing, but the law says you have to be given a 30 minute unpaid break for every work shift of at least 5 consecutive hours. If you cannot disconnect (if you need to stay reachable by your employer) then this break needs to be paid.
Are we saying the same thing ? It's just in my head there is a difference between "30 minutes is deducted" and "you have to be given 30 minutes", but it could very well be a me issue
Birthday Clubs: I know an office where everyone was encouraged to "donate" just $5 a year towards paying the cost of celebrating a team member's birthday (cake, card, utensils). When your turn comes up in several months to a year, you get a birthday cake in your name, a slice, utensils, and coffee. The math is 30 people x $20 = $600. SCAM.
For $20, I'll buy my own cake.
Well my current workplace mailed me a walmart gift card for 25 instead of celebrating birthday party
traveling somewhere else outside of daily work hours needs to be paid for 👍🏿
In office attendance and dress codes are asinine and completely unnecessary in this day and age. We've proven that for 4 years.
The in-office attendance thing is not that straightforward. Yes, an experienced, seasoned employee is likely more productive working remote. For example, a senior level software developer. But that is just for that one narrow job function. One that could arguably be offshored for much less money. But what gets lost is that senior employee's ability to mentor junior employees one-on-one. Conversing over Slack/Teams and on video calls is not the same as sitting next to someone to cross-train and solve problems. Again, it is the junior or entry level people that miss out. An experienced employee that argues that they are more productive locked in a room alone has proven that they've been promoted to their level of incompetence because they are unable/unwilling to make the leap from high-functioning individual contributor to "mentor".
@@chiplangowski3298 Working over teams works just as well. In fact I prefer it over someone being in my bubble. Remote is better.
"5% -- other duties as assigned by {director}"
I just had my performance eval. That 5% was over a dozen projects that were tenuously tangential to my PD.
My favorite is "due to business needs", I question to see the policy in writing what defines business needs and states what level of management is authorized to initiate 'business needs' activity.
Dress code: My dad worked IT in the 90s and was required to wear a suit per dress code. The people in the department started buying the cheapest suits possible because they would get destroyed while running network cables and things. I think he said that a suit lasted a month or 2.
Christmas parties: Last company had christmas parties as fully optional. Saturday night, alcohol centered. Hotel room provided for you and guest for the end of the night.
Lunch breaks: At least in the US, they depend on the job and it might vary by state. Office is different than factory or fast food. Office is not really nationally regulated, but factory and fast food are regulated in some form.
Paid parking: My sister works in downtown and has to pay $5 daily for parking 3 days a week (works from home the other 2). The money is not going to the company, but the company (or city) that owns the garage.
A company I worked at sent out a survey link by email saying it was anonymous. A contractor at the company didn’t get the email but wanted to provide feedback, so they asked the IT guy to send them the link, so the IT guy forwarded the link from their email. Later, when the IT guy went to fill in the survey, he found it had already been filled in with the contractor’s answers. Meaning that the link in the email was unique and tied directly to each user’s email. Now the company will read that “anonymous” feedback and assume it came from the IT guy…
I was also a contractor and didn’t get the email, but once I heard the story from the IT guy I said “no thanks”, don’t need that.
Have you talked about "Self Evaluation Forms"? I've always declined to do them (for myself or for any committee I chair). To me, that's what management is paid for. Out of hours work: At my small agency, I finally had it agreed that ANY time spent at the office on a day off was worth one day in lieu. Even if you were only in for an hour, your whole day off was wrecked. Pizza and parking: here in the UK, occasionally the government is so squeezed for funds that it looks at ways of taxing new things. One day the tax man was in the office and, hearing about how we got pizza in about four times a year, asked for an account of how many slices each employee had. The financial director had the good judgement and nerve to show the inspector to the door. Nothing more was heard on that. Parking. This is tough at places like public schools and public hospitals. There is no obligation to provide parking for staff, but just try to develop the land used for parking for a new maternity unit or sports hall. . . . !!!
Experience is overrated. It always reminds me of:
"We take your money and our experience and make it our money and your experience. "
As for exposure. Ask artist of any kind of exposure. Then as a lanlord if they can pay their rent with exposure.
Whatever happened to:
"I do something that will benefit you, and in exchange you do something of equal value that will benefit me."
Nowadays it seems more like: "Lie your way to success while taking advantage of others as much as possible."
I guess we worship money so much that we do not longer care about integrity.
My favorite was they brought in ice-cream and asked one person why not. He was a diabetic. That manager was so embarrassed he disappeared and came back later with so much jerkey for that guy.
Surveys with questions that do not address the issues, then when they get blasted on those surveys, they recall the survey and issue another one 🤣. Evaluations where either there is no middle ground for "meets expectations" so you are either rated as an over achiever or a lacky, or evaluations with unreasonable expectations to achieve "perform above expectations" where either situation results in an annual raise that rewards one person with 4% and the rest with 3% or less regardless of performance. Another big one is paying per mile on a personal vehicle, then rapidly changing to cheap company vehicles...essentially sticking their employees with a car note on a car they rarely use, or the inverse where they take vehicles away they promised during the hiring process, forcing employees to purchase a vehicle for work use. I used to laugh at The Office until The Office became my office. Then I left and laughed again.
1:35 YES! You're spot on with this description, and it happens far too often in the workplace. While it's lovely that companies can support you in developing skillsets that will in turn directly benefit your work at the company, how they don't pay you for the extra tasks required to get the certification/degree/etc. is really frustrating.
I work in civil engineering, and things are a little complicated with how we pay. Well not really, but the way it is makes changing it up really difficult. There are a couple of ways companies can bill for projects, most commonly lump sum or fee schedule. The internal commonality is that people still get paid based on time. Here's why it's muddy. There's no true "work load" associated with it. Sure, the project requires a specific thing to get done, but there are so many subtasks that you just can't account for or assign an individual value to. How do you tell the client "we think this task is worth this much money for this person who did it" when the client doesn't necessarily know that that task was a part of the project? That's why we bill hourly, especially since there is always something else to be done on that project or on another project.
I hate "gathering events." Unless I am getting paid I won't attend. I don't mix personal and business lives. And when I am forced to, that's when I know it's time to move on.
Employers don't invest in the employee as much these days. In order to hire and start an employee is expensive for the employer so its cost effective for the employer to provide a healthy work environment. The employer offers the experience and the learning opportunity for employees as long as the employee decides to stay. They employee needs to look at jobs just as that. Its an opportunity to learn but as soon as you see the scam, its time to move on... I have learned so much from your content. I didn't realize when I was young that employers sell the dream. When they are done with you they try to make you quit. A real mind F.
5:56 This one really gets me. One of my bosses would manage by rumor. I'd come into his office and he'd say, "I think I'm going to have to get on X. He really isn't doing what he's supposed to be doing.' Then, I assume I was supposed to go running and tell him. Too bad, that's not me.
Does anyone else think that any sort of office job should just close down on December 24th and reopen January 2nd? I've yet to work through that week, but I can already tell that a lot of people will likely use their PTO, and productivity just won't be very high. My company pays us for half a day on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so we only get 3 business days off. I also realize that the amount of business days between The 24th and the 2nd varies year to year, but it can be as short as one business week. Will it really hurt the company that much to take a week off, especially if every other entity we work with also takes the week off and we have massive profits? I just think holiday time and PTO needs to be reassessed.
I can see companies that give you "unlimited" pto having an issue with mandatory off days.
The Paying for parking at your workplace is complete BS! I work at an Arena (so AHL hockey and concerts, plus the occasional comedy show, kids show, cheerleading fest or a random one off basketball show) and yea, the job is already part time at the best of times, some months we'll get only 4 shifts total, some are more, really depends on the month. All of that said you'd think they'd designate the 2 back lots (that are right near the staff entrance) as staff lots. They don't, and for the most part, we have to pay for parking. Thankfully the 1 parking enforcement person for the evening shift for that area is more or less cool with just looking the other way and letting us park there for free but if the company that owns the lot (not the company that employs me and owns the arena) had their way, yea we'd all be paying. It's like $12 per shift but honestly, worth it, way better than other parking options where I'd have to walk nearly a block or more, when it's chaotic after a game and you've been on your feet for hours, you just want to sit down as soon as possible and get outta there.
I don't have a job yet but this helps me with red flags in the work place! I think work places with toxic mangers and co-workers are scams/red flags!
I can't eat the Pizza either for dietary reasons as well. My boss lets me get something else on the menu. I don't drink either and I am a lot of fun to hang out with. I feel the same about alcohol in work events.
My "favorite" scam is the "you can't get top marks on your evaluation, but you are a great employee and meet all of our expectations." like I seriously had to DOWNGRADE my last evaluation because the company didn't like my direct supervisor's score. So my response is you get the employee you have on the evaluation, not the one you could have.
uncompensated on-call
on a morning commuter train listening to a passenger providing detailed Help Desk support to a user
as a former IT professional I learnt a lot about that organisatiuon - as did any one else in the train carriage who cared to listen
Those anonymous surveys, ugh. When I worked at Walmart the anonymous survey knew the answers were coming from a female full-time first shift stock room employee age 20-29. Cuz that's so many people, right? At that time, first shift stock at my store was a 60+ year old man, a college boy, a 50+ year old woman, and me.
Edit- I've only done an exit interview once. It was at my first co-op placement as an engineering student. Apparently at some point in that interview I concretely agreed to come back for the next co-op placement. I interviewed for other positions and then the day before my school's "match day" when we got our interview results, I got called to the co-op office to sign my contract to return. I said I didn't want to and hadn't agreed. The co-op office said apparently I had, and now my hands were tied. They had already told the other companies I interview with that I was off the table.
i don't mind an unpaid lunch hour, just leave me alone for an hour, its my time personel time 😊
My son applied for a Supervisor position on the internal company job board. He interviewed and got the job. Then they told him it was mistakenly listed as a sup position. They no longer have any dup positions. When we looked out on both the internal and external company job board still shows many many are listed as superior level.
One of the scams you mentioned is also known as the bait and switch. Definitely a scam. I worked for a company a long time ago that did that often. In the job interview as well as in the job posting they would tell you what the job entailed and the responsibilities. But then once they started, it was a whole different story. In addition to what they were told, there would be several other responsibilities as well as essentially taking on other responsibilities where the person ended up filling 2 or 3 or 4 jobs. Typically people would quit very soon after. As a company just be up front about the job and don't waste the time of other people.
17:55 no purpose, my company takes exit interviews. They don’t take any notes, they don’t ask for a written text that explains the employees story, they don’t disclose what the employee said in the exit interview and ultimately there is nothing done about what was discussed between those two people. Yes, exit interview is a big scam.
Work related travel needs covered. The employer doesn't want to compensate for all the time going to/from the airport, waiting, they don't want to pay for upgraded business class seats...so they are forcing those of us over 170# to be uncomfortable in a plane (and you gain more muscle weight as you age and grow wider), they don't want to compensate for the time spent during dinner with coworkers or clients talking work related topics after the workday, and certainly none of your home base costs (like lost gym membership use opportunity). Some even go as far as expecting you to drive and park at the airport- exposing your car to potential ding and paint damage or even a stolen car. No wonder managers try to make it seem exciting for younger workers to go on work travel!
I was given multiple other jobs on top of my normal work with the lines “ we thought of you first for this” and “this will look great on your annual review and for future promotion” and then just ended up being completely overwhelmed and then penalized when I told them I was going to work my wage and they could assign someone else the tasks.
At my workplace, the dress code is only enforced if they're trying to find more reasons to fire you
13:55 - A Client I worked for had this where you donate $5 to wear jeans on Friday, but the money went towards the 'fun committee' where they did things like golf, picnics, cook offs, etc. They would hire catering companies to celebrate gender reveals, retirements, and even new hires... One of the staff owns a cake business and she would make a few cakes to celebrate Birthdays and Work Anniversaries every month. It was actually one of the best companies I did work for, it seemed they cared about their staff. But I know some of their staff felt differently... but I was a third-party so I saw it differently. I didn't work directly for them (worked as a provider that they had and was providing support onsite full-time).
I hear now they got bought out by the largest company in their niche and majority of people left because the culture declined and now there are more red flags than ever.
Taco Tuesday
If not authentic Mexican tacos
Yeah it's a Scam
Nothing like the Hell scape of Taco Bell with limited Bathroom breaks
I had a place that gave you a set amount for being on call regardless of calls happening. At first I thought it was great but bugs in the code that forced us get up in the night were never fixed as it cost dev time and we were getting paid regardless. Every Saturday at 10pm and again at 11pm… to get anything fixed you needed the outage to pose a financial risk
Yes, I've worked for companies that offer 3 weeks PTO, but co-optes one of those for a year-end shutdown because they realized how much $$$ they saved by not having the lights on during a period when most employees were taking off anyway.
If you’re not paid for the role, no one takes your “exposure” in at as valuable.
I got told all the time for a year, yes your promotion you were hired for is coming, yet here is your laptop and here is work for that promotion you need to do. 😡🤬
There are many times for companies where they are required to have a certian % occupied for tax purposes.
I work in IT, staff surveys are sent out with tokenised links - this means we can see exactly who has completed the survey. Also, when you have large companies like Gallup, remember that the data shows the teams, the size and employee count - it's very easy as a manager to understand who gave poor results. The best advice I can offer is to ignore surveys - nothing gets done, they'll quote NPS but the main topics they look for are productivity, tools for the job, and who are the providing results with the highest detractors - this then gets used for consultation mapping if a re-org is imminent.
"You're gaining valuable skills" So what's my raise? "$0."
Concerning alcohol: I was part of the kitchen staff in a big luxury hotel (part of a medium sized european chain) in Germany. During the late shift (working from 14:00 to 22:30), we had the tradition to gather all in our small outside staff area and have a small beer (0,3 l) after the main rush was done to settle down. You could opt for a soft drink and participation was not mandatory. But this calm few minutes were great as a highpoint after a hard shift right before we went to clean the kitchen and went home on time.
The lunch thing is so real, but it's a law. Worker protections they say. I want my choice to not eat lunch (cause I do eat breakfast) and just snack throughout the day while working. 9 hours is too much... Not to mention 1 hour commute 😩
CO law requires a 1/2 hour unpaid lunch after 5.5 hours.
I'm in the UK and unpaid, mandatory lunch breaks are the norm.
I've also fallen into the trap of thinking HR is there for the employee. I definitely no longer think that. In fact, in my current role, it's blindingly obvious that they're there solely to protect the Partners.
Same here in the USA. HR is absolutely all about protecting the company, not the employees.
9:14 This is the worst. It was at my boss' house. I had to sit there and watch them all get drunk and act like idiots.
Christmas parties or celebrations I don’t do, or only for few people I like. I don’t want to spend my money on backstabbing people
A person is available outside of normal work hours for a long time. Then they reduce their availability to normal work hours. Is it really the person's fault? I think the problem is the employer built up an unreasonable expectation.
Great series! And I love your "Toodaloo" shorts; they're excellent.
Dress codes: Does the job involve dealing in person with customers, vendors, etc, or are you stuck in a cubicle by yourself all the time? Two totally different requirements for dress. While one is Business Professional, the other may be t-shirt and jeans - both perfectly appropriate for their respective roles. Dressing to satisfy some totally subjective bureaucratic "Company Policy" is just bullshit.
Career Guilt Trip: The proper response to anyone laying a guilt trip on you would be "Mind your own damn business."
Devil's Advocate (because I largely agree with you) the argument would be that you may not have direct contact with customers, but customers may well be in the office for meetings with other staff members and if they see you walking to the printer / coffee machine in your t-shirt and jeans when the company is trying to give off a more smart professional vibe it will harm that impression they are trying to make.
I think in maybe 20 years things will be quite different as the younger generations who seem to have less hang-ups about formal dress codes etc become the bosses more and more, similar with WFH, but for now they do have an argument - not one that convinces me but one that I don't think is completely unfounded either...
Company events without accommodating everyone’s dietary needs. I’ve been required to attend multiple company retreats out of state. My employer asked for dietary restrictions, and I told them months in advance and offered to help with planning so they could accommodate my needs. Then when I get to the event, there is nothing for me to eat. Not everyone eats meat or animal products or gluten or nuts. It’s a scam that companies demand attendance to these events, and then some people are left with literally zero options for food. Either have universally accommodating food options or don’t make events mandatory if you have no intention of feeding everyone fairly.
My current job did a bait-and-switch with my job hire, required unpaid on-call and I was called "not a team player" when I set boundaries (and received poor performance reviews because of it), has vague "and other duties as assigned" which I was almost fired over when I attempted to stand up for myself on a command that I felt wasn't in my scope of responsibilities, and forces us to take PTO for mandatory shutdown days under the threat of being written up or fired. Also, I've used our survey software and it definitely collects machine name and IP address.
I'm from israel and it's shocking for me that in the us 5 PTO (not include the mandatory days) is a thing.
In Israel, the minimum by law is 12 additional PTO tonthe mandatory days, and many companies provide even more days. For example, I get 19 additional days.
My employer broad-banded and it backfired on them. Now HR hires people who fit the broad band who will take the least allowable contractual salary, even if they have no idea how to do the job they're hired for - and under negotiated job protections, if they make it past three months, they can't get rid of the employee. The best they can do is try to find something the employee can do, in the same general location!
Work begins at 06:00. You sign in at 06:01. The employer docs you the 29 minutes you worked but wont let you work the one minute later than the end of work day.
Biggest one I've found is job descriptions for interviews. Had one company rep get about at me when I went into an interview where they had combined THREE separate roles into one position because since they posted the first position, two more people quit.
14:29 Having a dress code but you are also expected to take trash to the compactor, set up and break down events, do the mail. Sorry I am not putting on dress shoes and spending on expensive clothes when I take in the mail everyday.
Yeah, they lied to you about how people get promotion easily when qualified but the manager has to get the senior manager, then the director to be on boarded first. After that, a round if justification has to be presented to higher management level to sign off. Which is very very impossible because those people dont have the time to entertain every minion. But its the policy for a promotion
I get those questionaires
. "How long have youy worked here?" Answer "65 years"."Which department do you work in?" Answer "Doughnuts"
I haven't taken a lunch hour since the pandemic. I just work from 8 to 6 4 days a week to hit 40 hours.
I am very suspicious of compliments in the workplace, tripe-so when they come from management. It's basically corporate lovebombing / flattery in an effort to shoehorn more work into your schedule.
I had one project/account manager that would use the flattery tactic to basically create the saviour complex with the more naive developers. They'd forget about promises to clients until the last minute, then say "but you're awesome at coding, your a rockstar, it'll take you 10 minutes" in an attempt to cover for their incompetence.
Retail stores force their part-time floor staff to buy their products to show them while they are selling. Buying a couple of products is OK, but they push to buy more. Particularly, those stores that sell high-end jewelry that expect and request staff to purchase pieces.
When I left my job I got a set of exit interview questions from HR and another set from my manager. It really felt like an extra homework assignment on top of me finishing my work and transitioning duties. I was expected to type out all the answers so they’d have documentation in my file, they didn’t care enough to talk with me in person. Plus they didn’t listen to me while I was there so…😅 I didn’t do them.
Claim unemployment for the 2 weeks of shutdown and use your PTO for days you choose. It is PERSONAL Time Off not COMPANY Time Off.
"Winter Holiday Party" that happens in *February* to get around any accusations or implications that it happens around the time of any religious festival that happens at/around the end of the year. So it's not a "Christmas party" but it also pits employees against going to a work-related thing where attendance is expected, but you figure that Jan 29th-Feb. 4th would be a good time to take the family skiing at a resort that involves plane tickets and lodging and...
Having worked in manufacturing; I can see the point of a certain level of dress code (things like no baggy pants/shirts, stud earrings only, no watches/bracelets/rings, things like that). Machinery does like to grab loose/dangling things and doesn't much care if you're attached. So it becomes a safety issue.
But if you are requiring a uniform or certain level of dress for "presentation" purposes (especially if it's beyond business casual or maybe a basic suite/woman's equivalent [I'm a guy, I have a hard enough time with mens fasion I don't know how the ladies do it]) then it should either be provided by the company or there should be a set, inflation adjusted, stipend attached to the position for the purchase. Additionally, if the company provides clothing there should be enough provided of both hot and cold weather uniforms and accessories to get the worker through an entire work week plus extra (in case of overtime, damage, spills, etc). No more of this you get two, one in the wash and one wearing, and if you want more you have to buy them BS.
the lunch break stuff is often legal stuff at least iin germany you need to take it after working more then x hours and it is unpaid.
If there is no lunch break on your time card but you worked more than these hours then your employer can get into a lot of trouble so they enforce the break time.
On Cristmas parties: I think they are "a scam" if they happen after working hours and they are mandatory to attend.
I'm in two minds about the lunch break. I firmly believe everyone need breaks intersperced throughout your day (especially for a screen-worker). I just do not believe, no matter how much they kid themselves, 7hrs straight is just not productive. It's like those people that say "I can operate on 4hrs sleep"
The fairest approach is to say it should be 1 hour, but do it how you see fit: 60x1 | 30x2 | 20x3 | 15x4 | 10x5 or whatever denomination totals 60mins. Right now I do 30-40 mins for lunch, plus 15x2 or 20x1.
Hi I used to do surveys for company's. They are NOT anonymous. If they see something truly disturbing they can request who it is. They can also manipulate data to appear better by omitting or manipulating responses. It's grimey but it happens. Of course of that's specifically requested we did our best to discourage it with the ethics speech but uh yea. . .it happens. What I saw the most were different results - 1 dataset to present to employees and another for shareholders/board/executive mgmt, etc.
Was told I needed to train to run 3 different pieces of equipment. Wanted me to do this at night (after hours) and I needed to pay for it myself. Okay. BUT didn't want to give me a paycheck to show that I had spent 1,140 for each of these certifications. When they told me to run said equipment " I said that it was not on my resume and they didn't pay for it, thus I wouldn't use those skills at this job. I also told them that I was looking for a better job and as soon as I found one" I was leaving this cheap one". I got hired on to another job, that paid me 11.50 an hour more. That was the very next day. Worked for them for ten years. Loved that job. Moved to another state. Anyway.
My company doesn't do shutdown PTO in the way you described. Each year, we get 4 shifts worth of PTO every Jan 1st, and we steadily accrue 3 more shifts of PTO by Dec 31st. There were no shutdowns in 2022 or 2023, so we could use those PTOs any day we needed. Any left over after Dec 31st would get paid out to us in a Jan paycheck. In 2024, we've already had 14 days of shutdown, and it seems likely there's going to be another 7 days of shutdown in December. We were able to opt to use our PTO or Vacation or file for unemployment (which came to be about 30% of our pay for each shutdown). Everyone who depended on full pay for their bills hated that the company was essentially choosing when they were going on "vacation."
Has anything good ever come of mixing alcohol with work? Has anyone ever heard a story about that which ended well for someone? 🤔
Being mandated to attend a team building meeting in person (in another state), offers compensation but strongly suggest the cheapest flights and hotels. Basically putting a cap. Suggesting the frontier flight of $50 versus the Delta Comfort + flight of $250. SCAM!!
The un/under-compensated on call, PLUS, under-staffed can/will take it's toll on one's health and attitude, especiallt long term.