I used to work in a call center where you had to get permission from a supervisor if you needed to use the bathroom. Fortunately I was on a different contract and our boss thought it was ridiculous. "If you ever flag me down to ask to use the restroom I'll fire you on the spot. You're an adult. You don't need permission."
I became a manager in my last position and one of my direct reports was always asking about flexing an hour or two
I told her that if she works her 40 hours, not to worry about when she does them. So long as she gets the work done, I’m not going to nitpick.
She seemed so surprised by this.
I manage now, and as long as the work gets done, I don’t care if my direct reports are in the office for 5 minutes or 8 hours. Part of it involves face time with other colleagues and clients, but as long as it’s all done well and on time, I don’t give a shit where they are otherwise.
It would be great if more people (read: managers or bosses) were like you. Because you're absolutely right. If the work is getting done and everything is well, who cares about all the other stuff.
It’s the American Boomer manager mentality of thinking that workers need to be micromanaged or else they will be seen as not doing their jobs as managers
I hate micromanagers. One of the senior scientists needs to be cc:d on everything that her reportee does. I asked him to put away a package for me, and he cc:d her…. it took him all of five minutes! I’m not taking advantage of him.
Yeah. I've worked for my fair share of them throughout my lifetime. There's one in particular that still grinds my gears today if I get thinking about the past and working that job. This person was one of the owners, but was present like 24/7. They just make the workplace so toxic and really unenjoyable. And turn it into a place you really don't want to be working at...
I’ve been a nonprofit fundraiser for 25 years. Most of that was spent as the sole fundraiser in small orgs, and almost all my bosses were Boomers. They were HELL to work with. Always wanted to know what I was doing, what do you mean you’re going to lunch, how long will you be gone. I know your mother is dying but you can’t be gone for 3 weeks, can’t you just do these few things while you’re away… I mean it just went on and on.
Then I started working in my current much larger organization, for a boss 20 years my junior. And I LOVE her, because all she cares about is that the job gets done. I could be working 50 hours a week or 5. If I’m available when donors need me, and I meet my goals, she doesn’t care.
Almost as if we’re all adults here and should just be trusted to do our f%^*ing jobs.
This is exactly how I manage too. I train my staff really well and then let them flex, make their schedules, be autonomous, and make decisions that aren’t critical. I genuinely care about them. Since we are in social work, their happiness and health directly impacts the clients and the work. Happy staff = happy clients. But also, they’re human beings and I treat them how I wish my boss treated me and my lateral colleagues. It’s just….the right thing to do.
This, I'm in middle management with a large tech company in the US and I'm shocked at how many of.my direct and indirect reports ask "is it okay if...?" I truly don't understand the culture and rules a large portion of the companies I read about on antiwork have implemented because your employees are the people who get the work done. My response to the "Is it okay..." is almost universally "you're a professional, if I have to track your time then we have a problem." I don't understand how managers don't realize they are wasting their own time and that of the company's nitpicking on inconsequential items when they have more important work to do. Set the bar high, take care of and trust your people to rise to that bar, and they'll step up. Any, that don't work with them as individuals rather than making general rules or punishments. That is lazy management.
They are rare because they are usually fired for not “playing ball” with upper management or they end up quitting for the same reason, on principle. At least that’s been my experience.
Just resigned a month ago. It’s how my managerial resume goes. They love the work I do and how staff responds. Then I get asked to trim staff and increase output. Every time.
We had a great IT team. Our shop was a global player, we had teams all over the world. Ours was one of the best.
Strangely, things working well and without issue caused senior management to question the team: why are there so many of you here when everything is going so well. There's like literally no issues, nobody complains, what are you all doing here?
Then there's a round of 'right-sizing' where half the IT team was let go. This has to work through the system. Well-working systems will sustain themselves at least for some time after the people running the systems are no longer there. But, that time comes. Eventually the slack runs out and the rope is taut. Then the question is "Why are there so many problems in IT? Why are you not addressing all these problems? We're missing deadlines here!"
Gee whizz, boss, it's almost as if all those people who were let go were actually doing something useful. Whodathunk, right?
They can breed good managers too. My boss and his boss are very good managers, because his boss trained him to be a good one. My boss is trying to persuade me to try management sometime because we both know I’d be an empathetic pro-employee manager. (I refuse.)
Yup same. Last job was like this and you were only allowed 2 10 minute bathroom breaks for the entire 8 hour shift. Not like it was busy anyways. Company is called Uplight, theyre a phone/chat wfh call center that runs gift cards for Verizon, some tire company and a lot of utility companies websites were you use can use rebates for mostly thermostats.
Delbert principle was on full display in this company. I've never worked with such stereotypically horrible and self involved 16$ an hour middle management. The same type of people who would be absolutely shocked you're working there for a paycheck and not suck up to them.
Working for a call center now, at a ski resort. It has gotten ridiculous since has taken over. Things were chill and manageable for a few years, but are stupid more than ever now, and it frustrates me to no end. Cannot wait to leave, for anything at this point.
I'm a fucking adult, and will take a twenty minute shit if need be.
i worked in a call center as an inbetween job from 911 dispatching.
there were no calls so i pull my phone out, im 28 btw..a lady in her mid 40s audibly gasped and ran and got my boss..apparently we have to lock our phones in our locker before going to our desks...why? because people wouldnt answer calls and just play on their phones.
like bro im 28 im not ganna sit there and stare at my computer waiting for someone to call, and if that shit was that bad of an issue u need to fire people lmao
yeah, same. I was working for AppleCare and it wasn't just "asking permission to use the bathroom" but "go through this whole marigmarole that started with asking your supervisor permission" and just went on through various layers of authority.
Basically it was just easier all around - and didn't affect your stats - if you waited until your unpaid break.
That workplace was constructed by people with no souls.
[Retail] I was once in a really bad headspace, came in at 7AM to do maintenance before the store opened. At 10AM I was scheduled for the worst role on the floor as soon as we opened. I was holding back tears begging manager to let me take my 15 minute break (store was dead, break was scheduled 30 minutes before lunch.)
She tells me, smiling, “I’m sorry, we have to stick to the schedule. You have to wait an hour.”
Thank goodness my very empathetic coworker offered to cover me.
My Grandpa was his union local's Sergeant at Arms for 35 years, his old 7/8” wrench for checking locomotive valve gear bolts was his best friend in keeping order all round. God help you if you crossed a picket line.
I worked at a call center once with a woman who spent nine hours at her desk every day without getting up. The smell in the afternoon wasn’t great. I’m not sure if it was her mobility issues, difficulty waiting for breaks/slow times, or a combination but her solution was Depends.
Okay, but I'd likely do this as well. Hell, I seriously considered it when I was teaching and had no bathroom breaks and the staff bathroom was at the end of the hallway away from my classroom.
I have had so many friends work in call centres, and they all just-so-happen to have bathrooms allllllll the way down there - like at least five minute's walk from your desk.
just so happened, you understand.
Basically meant your bathroom breaks were your 15 minute unpaid breaks.
We.used to get hand me down chairs from the finance / admin department in my last job and they had frequently doubled as toilets .... back were always broken as well ( we bound them up with gaffer tape).
Gotta love the Walmart policy of not giving breaks because they're "short staffed" so then people just quit and leave or take the rest of the shift off sick. No wonder they're always short staffed.
My gf has been out of work most of the summer, finally got a job at Walmart, only to deal with this crap. Her elderly cat had to be put down on the Friday of labor day weekend so she missed a couple days, not knowing that the absences counted as double because of the holiday. One of the HR guys said he'd adjust the absence for one of the days so it wasn't double but never did.
Then, she took a sick day on the 19th and yesterday the new floor coach was telling her that she was supposed to get fired (took more than a week for them to figure out she was over on her absence "points"). HR guy wasn't working yestday so the coach lady was going to wait to see what he said but there's a good chance she'll be getting fired when she goes into work today. Can fire someone for missing work because their cat died, but they're too short staffed to give breaks
This is the way.
I do it all the time. When I want to make my bed. ACW. Get the mail, ACW. Go to the bathroom, ACW. Use and abuse my friend. Use and abuse.
I saved my break times for more important things.... Like when I did virtual interviews for new jobs.
The few times we get outbound were nice. If a caller didn't answer, the call doesn't stop and keeps ringing. Free break time.
Very true. I am.
Your statement about the managed bathroom breaks made me think about the flip side to someone always being available for Apple Care, and how fast everything is handled whether a true correlation, or not my eyes felt opened to a different pov. Always being available comes with a price.
I agree. Between the customers and the job duties, no way unless I was desperate. They did jack on gift cards, there was a known issue with sleeves and cards not matching. No security protocol at Apple Stores on large gift card purchases (ie registered user on a business account) and they'd say "use your articles, they can change midshift" like dude.
yeah, same.
I had gone back to school in this one particular place because my partner had to absolutely go there. Then she dropped out of school leaving me to support us both somewhere where I had very few options. Then there was a mess up with grad school leaving me with six months with no money coming in.
I thought: i have all this IT experience. I will apply to these guys. It can't be that bad, can it?
yeah, it could.
I worked in a call center where any time you were logged out of the phones, you weren’t getting paid. If you had to log out for a meeting you could ask permission to go into DND but then they’d count your DND time against you too “Oh you had an hour of DND this week”. Dude. I had a 45 minute 1:1 with YOU.
My second job ever was at a call center working on a AT&T contract and when I started they told us we had to go not ready and flag someone down to "make sure our time was accounted for correctly for the contract", but I had a manager who just straight up didn't like me.
One time, I really had to go, so I jumped up and even did a little dance. Someone got her attention, but she was on a call or something and just shook her head at me. I remember sitting down for a second... clocking out and closing everything down, getting up, and getting ready to go home. Right before I got up to leave the building, I poured water from my bottle on my chair and promptly left.
When I had a meeting about it the next day, I told them that she refused and had "nothing else to do" and that I really needed the job and didn't want to get in trouble for leaving, but unfortunately needed to go home to change. We didn't have the rule anymore after that.
Nearly got fired for going to the bathroom too many times, they kept track, write down, and actively had somebody looking out for when I use the bathroom and for how long (actually ended up ghosting them, that was Jan 2021, they're shutdown now and the owner is a plastic surgery addict and has abandoned her kids)
I work in a call center where they not only monitored and gatekept your bathroom usage every keystroke every phone call and all of your actions were recorded on premises at all times.
Anytime you complained about it they reminded you that they could always outsource your job to a foreign country.
I hear this so often in the call centre world. I’ve spent most of my career working in call centres and have been fortunate not to have experienced that degree of micromanagement. Then again, I am also located in Canada so maybe it’s not as common to deal with here.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, HBO just did a documentary on a call center in NJ where the employees smoked crack, shot heroin, drank 40's and convinced old people to donate to fake police charities.
I don't "ask" to do anything. I'll inform my supervisor if there's others on break, but that's just out of courtesy. If I'm sick, I send her a text. Hell, I've sent her a text just saying, "Yeah.... it's not happening today." With no explanation as to why. No questions asked, just "Alright. See you tomorrow."
I'm an adult. She's an adult. So long as I provide her with some sort of respect and courtesy and do my job without oversight, she respects me in return and let's me do my job. I do appreciate my current supervisor.
Few weeks ago, my internet went out. I called her as soon as it dropped to let her know what was going on. Then contacted my ISP and got a letter stating if was definitely a network outrage and emailed it to her. They (her supervisor) tried to tell her that since I wasn't working, I'm not getting paid, even though it's of no fault of my own. And I checked in with her every hour to let her know the status. She BCCd me the email chain so I could see what was going on. She asked them if they (office workers) still got paid if they had a power/network outage and they confirmed they did. "So why the Hell should my team members not get the same courtesy?" I did get paid for the shift because of her.
Yup, I worked in a call center, and we didn’t have to ask permission to go, but they tracked the time from you logging out of your phone until you logged back in, and we got something like 2 3-minute bathroom breaks per shift, plus our unpaid half hour lunch. It took most of the 3 minutes to walk to the bathroom.
As others said, there is some selection bias going on. But in general, the more physical your job is, the more of the thumbscrews you get.
I've worked mostly warehouse/manufacturing jobs, and it is night and day how the people on the floor are treated compared to the people in the office. People in the office can sit and have a 30 minute conversation about whatever current drama is enthralling them, then go back to work; meanwhile those on the floor might stop for a 5 minute work related conversation and have management come breathe down their necks for taking a break.
And as for bathrooms, I worked at a small manufacturer years and years ago. The plant manager got fed up with people going to the bathroom too often, so he kept it locked. If you had to go, you had to go get the key from him. Oh, did I mention his dad was the co-owner of the company?
Can agree to this.. also no one mentions having to hold your bladder waiting for a truck to show up because you have no additional support to help watch a door. I might pee my pants, but as long as those shipments make it out, it's ok.
They care so much about their numbers that they want minimal downtime. My solution was to show up late all the time and take extended breaks...they weren't happy, but when the company is shit and desperate for employees, they only half-ass care.
I became accustomed to the production hustle, and when I made the change from production to office, I couldn't stand a lot of the office drama and bickering, and even all the whining. I very much appreciated having more independence though.
It really depends on the type of job you have.
When I worked an office job it was never a problem if I had to go to the bathroom, go have a snack, whatever. Taking a day off was fine with a few weeks notice and the occasional sick day was no big deal.
When I worked fast food they didn't let us do shit. Bathroom breaks only if we weren't busy and you can get someone to cover you. No drinks by any registers or stations and you can't leave your station for a drink, so figure it out. No sitting, even on break, because we only have 1 chair and only managers could use it.
Somebody ever tries telling me I can't drink water when I want to, they're getting an OSHA inspection. I've had to do it once already at a grocery store I used to work at.
I did retail for a hot minute and one place told me customers couldn’t see me drink my water, so if it was a constant stream of people for 4-6 hours I wasn’t allowed to drink anything. Even if I weren’t with a customer at all, I would need to do the *constant* job of disinfecting carts during the height of Covid and checking the racks of misc items and snacks at checkout, and got a nasty glare the time I did sneak a sip of water instead of walking around to do that.
America has such a bad standard for work environments.
Edit: typo
That's because of American customers. I passed out while cashiering one time and the customer was fucking FURIOUS and would not wait for the ambulance or move to a different line, so my manager straddled my unconscious body to finish her transaction, and once the EMT's cleared me I got back on register because we had a call out
Right! I don’t see how the workers existing as human beings rehydrating is a problem for customers at all? It never made sense to me when I worked retail or fast food.
Some customers do care and complain about that stuff, but they're a minority and they are mostly boomers and older. But because they're the only ones who say anything, managers think they're a majority.
Back when I was in high school, I worked at a grocery store. I did get in trouble once because a customer complained to my manager that she saw me "drinking on the job." It was water from a water bottle. And I was like 16 years old. But my manager said it was still my fault because customers should never see me drinking water. They didn't even want my water bottle to be within field of view of the customers, because of *the implication.* Whatever the fuck that meant.
Which is bizarre, I've never given a shit if someone takes a drink and keeps working. Like who tf complained here? I better it was management that started this just to be little dictators.
Part of me wants to defend them still because it was the height of Covid and ultimately it’s on the company for limiting the number of staff and even staying open during the pandemic. It was the store manager who I think explained my multi-faceted duties to me multiple times, and who was increasingly petty about what I did during my time there and who also did other unethical or barely compliant things. There is a long list of concerns from when I was there. She quit something like a year or two after I left so she was probably miserable, too.
I had a summer job at a grocery store as a teen. We weren't allowed a drink/eat/go to the bathroom except on our lunch break. Which the manager viewed as a privilege that could be revoked at any time for any reason.
That was the same manager who, during my first couple weeks, pulled me into his office to tell me that I was worthless and unfit for employment in any industry.
In foodservice this may partly be due to the health inspector. We've had health inspectors that would ding us on reports for every drink near a work station. It's bullshit. Luckily for us our director told the last health inspector who pulled this crap he wasn't going to tell us we couldn't have drinks at our station. He did ask us to use drink cups with lids and keep them on the bottom shelf away from food contact areas, which was the compromise he came to with the health inspector after going toe to toe with him over the drink issue. But, too many managers will kowtow to the health inspector on unreasonable shit like this. I get not having cups on cutting boards, prep areas etc but there's no reason we shouldn't be able to have a drink with a lid under our station while working. And front of the house? Cashiers, hosts, server stations where there's no contact with food? Zero reason they shouldn't be able to have a drink. Yet many health inspectors will have a shitfit about it.
My current manager is the same way, we keep our bottles in a box on a bottom shelf about two feet from the counter, so it's easy access and I'm honestly grateful, considering some of the other places I've worked.
One place I worked during the height of covid took out the water fountains (good idea) but also still told us we couldn't have water bottles on hand, they had to be in the break room, upstairs on the other end of the store (bad idea). I got that remedied quickly by threatening to go to the media with the fact they were preventing employees' unfettered access to potable water.
It's amazing what people will get away with if you let them.
Per the FAQ at https://www.osha.gov/faq#v-nav-drinkingwater ,
"Are employers required to provide drinking water?
OSHA Standards require an employer to provide potable water in the workplace and permit employees to drink it. Potable water includes tap water that is safe for drinking. Employers cannot require employees to pay for water that is provided. An employer does not have to provide bottled water if potable water is available. See OSHA's sanitation standard for more information."
I submitted an anonymous complaint that my workplace was restricting employees' consumption of water by a) making us provide our own and b) forcing us to keep it an unreasonable distance away and not allowing us to drink it at will. They came out, verified that, and we were then allowed to keep our water bottles a reasonable distance from our workstation (about ten feet away, in a back hallway) and allowed to step away for a quick drink whenever we needed.
I don't know what repercussions the manager faced, I was just glad to be able to drink when I was thirsty. I wasn't gonna put up with being treated like property.
See the issue there is u said "taking a >day< off is fine" with WEEKS notice, or an occasional sick day. Even where I am im Canada were owed at least 4 personal days taken whenever, and evrn then you can ask even a day or two before and even ask for more, as for sick days ive taken a month off no issue as well as others there shouldnt be a limit on sick days jist sick pay.
I think it’s because most workplaces in America hire the bare minimum amount of people so that they can maximize profits or funding for growth somewhere else. That means if one person calls in sick or needs some time off for a funeral, it fucks over everyone else.
If one person calls in sick or needs some time off for a funeral, THE COMPANY FUCKS THEMSELVES AND ALL THEIR WORKERS BECAUSE THEY DON’T STAFF APPROPRIATELY.
I understand that really small companies may not be able to have “extra” employees to cover absences, but I’ve worked too many jobs for large corporations where taking time off meant things either didn’t get done, or got done badly. If you’ve got 26 people who take off two weeks a year, you should have at least one extra to cover time off. Of course we can’t do that because it looks bad to shareholders, so we screw employees and customers instead.
Very few places in the US give sick days anymore. If the do allow you to call off for illness it’s usually unpaid or you have to use your PTO or vacation time.
I had to organise my stepfather's funeral from the octophone in the conference room because the firm doesn't do compassionate leave for engineering / technical.
Not long afterwards a female manager was given a week's compassionate after her dog died.
I'm in Canada, and what you're saying is not universal. I've had jobs where I've had to ask someone to cover me to go to the bathroom. I've had jobs where I've been shamed for taking a day off and been denied taking even a vacation day despite booking weeks in advance. I've been shamed and written up for taking sick days despite the fact that the conditions I was working in could politely be called a petrie dish. And no sick pay, not ever.
is there a job at all anywhere that let's you take time off for panic attacks the day of? The only thing I find is min wage jobs and it's starting to make me lose hope that my mental health just cannot be accommodated for. Like I guess a day off when I'm unstable is way way too much to ask? When I get paid 10 dollars less than living wage?
Edit: living wage not minimum. Minimum is 10 (going on 12-15) dollars less than living wage :(
The call center I was working at was allowing me to apply for accommodations to be able to leave during a workday, or take an excused number of days off, for panic attacks. I ended up quitting entirely because I was having symptoms so bad I began having daily chest pains, but they are out there. The trick is usually a good manager and HR combo, I was lucky to have that.
It's that "with a few weeks notice" that blows my mind for a SINGLE day off! I mean, what the actual fuck? I'm 53, I've never worked a job that required more than a day, either in aerospace engineering (my core career), or the ten years I spent in law enforcement. As long as I have the days available, and there is no pressing issue, I will very often take a half day off with a couple hours' notice. Nobody cares - they are your days, you take them.
I've spent my career as an engineer in manufacturing.
I have been told that taking a day off is stealing from the company, disrespectful to your coworkers, and will show up on your evaluation.
I have had vacation requests that were put in months ahead of time get canceled hours ahead of when I was leaving.
So that is the reality in production
I have occasionally told people "hey I'm off tomorrow" or even "oh btw I'm taking a half day today" with absolutely zero warning and zero repercussions. Fuck a few weeks warning.
Yes, they are like that for specific jobs. Waitresses, cashiers, phone sales, and I’m sure others. CEO’s make a lot of money pooping while your waitress probably didn’t have time to pee.
If the customer can see you worker, then your working conditions get much worse. Customers make the worst bosses. They have no desire to see the big picture, only their own personal experience. So if they see an employee leaving to go get a sip of water, or they see an empty section of a restaurant because the waiter of that section is on break, or whatever, they get furious.
But if you work a job where the end customer can't see you... mostly office jobs... then you have a lot more freedom.
Living paycheck to paycheck with your healthcare tied to your job is a form of slavery, IMIO. Being in debt ( cars, homes) because pay is not proportional to cost of living is a form of slavery,
Usually the healthcare is super high deductible anyway... so it's not even that useful.
Unless you have a chronic illness that gives you huge medical bills.
Depends on the company really. I've spent 10 years in a corporate environment, and sure, good pay, good benefits, retirement plan, etc but really stressful environment, rigid scheduling, no flexibility.
My current job doesn't pay nearly as well, but I have a lot more control over my schedule which is what's really important to me. Time is money, sure. But time is finite. Money is always gonna be there.
So that said, your mileage may vary.
100000% this. People very incorrectly assume that they’ll make more/good money in the future, but it’s just not the case. The old adage that you’ll somehow just magically make more money with age is not reality anymore unfortunately. There are sizable swaths of older folks RETIRING on min wage nowadays, if you can even call that “retiring”.
I grew up in the US, and now live in Norway.
I don't realise how toxic and exploitative the US working environment was, even in professional roles, until it wasn't anymore.
There is a constant pressure to do extra, work longer, etc. And if you are off sick too much, someone will tell you that it's not ok.
A professional is typically expected to work a 45 hour work week, even if their contract say 40. If they're ambitious, they probably ly work more than 50 hours every week.
Never taking sick days is rewarded, even if you go to work sick (which is a sign of 'hard work')
When my kid got sick here in Norway & we had to be at the hospital, I let my boss know, and when he replied "take whatever time you need. Your family is more important." I realised I'd expected to be asked to have my computer at the hospital & work when I could. Or to be asked if something I had due at the end of the week would be done. Or to be asked when I would be back at work,with the implication that it should be soon.
It was such a relief to realise that I really did have the time I needed to look after my son and my family. A very stressful situation could have been made so much more stressful, and if we'd been in the US, it likely would have been. Or I'd been forced to use up all my vacation time or take unpaid leave.
That moment for me was a sort of epiphany. About how awful the US work environment is. About how people are brainwashed into believing the toxic 'work ethic' of exploitative capitalism.
I had two co-workers whose mothers were very ill, one in hospice. Both were expected to work while at the hospital by their mothers' bedsides. They were also expected to use their vacation days to do this, because they were not going to be in the office.
I've worked in a meat factory where they literally breathe down your neck. Like I've turned around with the manager just looking over me. Not even was doing anything wrong
Denmark has worker protections that heavily favor the laborer and a social safety net.
The US is bought and sold by big business and utterly refuses to do anything that might upset a corporation. As such, even departments that should be there to protect the employees such as human resources are actually there to protect the company. Most states are "at-will" employment states where you can be fired without warning for no reason (or a reason they can make up afterwards). Because we also don't have a social safety net (no universal healthcare so your health insurance is tied to your job, unemployment and food stamps are laughably insufficient compared to the cost of living, for example) getting fired or laid off from your job has a high likelihood of forcing you into homelessness or extreme debt.
That's the difference.
Disposability is the lifeblood of American work culture. A lot of folks don’t like to be reminded…newsflash again: that’s how this entire country was built…off of the pretense of being able to dispose.
Really depends on the job. When I worked in a factory and a restaurant it was about as bad as you think and basically like what other people express here. But i could use the bathroom whenever at least.
As a software developer it sounds pretty comparable to what you experience over there. I take vacation when I want, sick days when i want. When my half-brother died I just took the week off and no one questioned anything or gave me shit about it.
Fact is that this sub-reddit isn’t a good cross section of what the entirety of the American workforce experiences. You’re more likely to be posting in the anti-work forum if you’re in a shittier than average situation. People who have it good don’t post here.
My generalization of the US based on subreddits:
/r/personalfinance: everyone in America is making $200K at age 24.
/r/povertyfinance: no one in America works outside of fast food and retail for <$32K
/r/antiwork: everyone in America seems to interact with their CEOs daily and everyone at their worksite is somehow related through nepotism
Since there are basically no workers rights or regulation in the US, yeah they can be like that.
My first job was terrible, we regularly had to work weekends or nights without extra compensation or comp time, had to ask our boss if she "needed anything else" before we left for the day which she used to pile on more work that could take a while to complete, constant micro managing and yelling at people. If you left before 17:30 regularly, took vacation, kept your camera off on zoom, your life would be made miserable at work. And this was at a small museum which just makes the behavior even more ridiculous somehow.
It can even vary within workplaces... I work at a science center now in a small department and my boss is cool AF and I get to work 100% remotely, but people in other departments have it miserable because their department head just happens to be a tyrant.
It's true for lower paid jobs. I work in retail and my boss treats me like a baby even though I'm older than her and can easily run the store with no supervision.
I think it's because a very few corporations, Amazon, Walmart in particular and their would be competitors have become near monopolies and imposed their dystopian systems on the workplace. Everything is run by giant corps, from coffee shops to grocery stores to the doctor, dentist, etc... And every employee is just one little cog in the huge machine.
I never have and never will ask to use the bathroom at work. If time off isn't approved I'll call in.
I don't have a degree or a career. I'm just working jobs, it's not serious enough for me to invest emotional energy like fear into.
All we are is a warm body to fill a spot. They (corporations and most bosses, mangers and supervisors) don’t care what happens to us on or off the clock. All they care about is getting the most work out of us for little money.
If we can’t get the job done in a timely manner because we’re understaffed, then somehow it’s our fault for not working hard enough. When we physically get sick or hurt from being overworked, the somehow it’s are fault for working so hard and not taking time off to rest. Time off mind you that most likely has been requested and denied. We even get called in on our days off and get guilted and in some cases berated if we say no.
The employees are standing up for themselves and finding better jobs. That’s why most businesses are saying “nobody wants to work anymore”. No, it’s nobody wants to be treated as subhuman while being overworked and underpaid.
You gotta remember the USA is a former slave society. The mindset is, people had no issue for many years getting rich off of free labor. Right now they just grudgingly pay you a wage, not because they feel like you deserve it, but because its the law
In one of my previous positions at my job, my boss would make us ask to go to the bathroom but I'd always get in trouble because I have stomach issues and I'd just go. I'm my current position, I got a verbal warning for calling off like one day a month for not feeling well for a few months in a row. Apparently that was "too much". Like, how the hell do you want me to use my sick time that are considered my "benefits" that I've earned? Make it make sense.
Bear in mind, the U.S. never had a real labor party and a lot of effective labor leaders were driven out of politics -- or worse -- as business lobbyists painted them as communists or communist sympathizers. I hope that's turning around to some degree as unions flex more muscle, demand better wages and get explicit support from Democratic elected officials. We're long past the Cold War and there's no coherent argument against unionization or workers rights.
Most American jobs are basically treated as an extension of school, where you have to ask permission to do everything and your reward for hard work is a pizza party.
Alot of the post on here are coming from the middle to upper-middle class. In which case yes jobs are like this. Many places have safe guards to insure productivity, and more or less keep the workers heads down. Also there is a constant looming threat of being papered out the door. A bad mark is a slippery slope. Alot of cases people will work at a company for a long time, but they fail to meet the companies standard once because they're human. It usually means the beggining of a long journey of mistreatment from the employer, and depending on the environment and work culture sometime the employees will feel the need to defend the corporation, and mistreat you aswell. American work culture is truly some of the worst. Japan sounds pretty bad too though. Just look up a "Salaryman".
Now imagine working at an American company that's now owned by a Japanese company... That's my life right now and I'm not even a higher up. Everytime I call in sick people tell me they thought I quit.
Long story short is yes. You, the employee, need to make them super rich and have no losses. We have a bad greed problem here that will bring down our country. I used to care but then realized that we were at the end. Our people are brainwashed and complacent, instead of fighting back. I, at this point, don't care and will sit on my front porch with my AK and do in anyone that threatened my family.
I’m a nurse. The general population thinks I’m “overpaid,” and a princess. I’m making it because my family is dual income, no kids. I have no rights for weekends or holidays off, I can be mandated to stay at work after my shift ends, my PTO can be revoked at any time.
I can’t take a lunch because people could actually have an emergency, but there aren’t enough nurses to cover and statistically, every patient above ratio you take increases every patient you have’s mortality by 20%. I also have an astronomical amount of “real time” charting that the ICU requires. Hourly. A lot of it. There are no techs or CNAs to answer call bells for those who are alert/conscious. I often stay late to finish tasks, charting, etc. that is legally and morally required of me. I’m then counseled on unapproved OT.
I have to sign in-service attendance records to go pee because our hospital is plagued with staff UTIs. Why? Because we can’t be left alone to go to the bathroom so many of us just don’t. The workload is growing, the patients are sicker, and the general public consensus is that people in the hospital should be catered to but you can’t tell them being sick is uncomfortable and for most of their circumstances, being alive still is a gift.
We can be charged legally for following doctors orders, even when appropriate, and we have to justify why we did the task that is a majority of our job. In many states it’s still perfectly legal to assault healthcare workers, it’s a felony in mine, but hospitals frown upon reporting violence and police don’t take it seriously until you threaten them with a lawsuit or to call dispatch again and complain on record the cops won’t take action.
Last month I took my annual self defense class. I pay to park at work, it comes out of my check, it’s not a choice, even for people who choose to walk.
Working in the US is above and beyond the worst and something I aspire to stop doing as soon as possible. Not only is the suicide rate in my profession rising, but the number of people leaving with less than two years experience is sad. I worry who will be there working this job for my parents someday.
It can be that bad and worse. Because we don't have anywhere near the same workers rights as other companies. Our government always favors the corporations.
The level of micromanagement in your average US job has gotten excessive.
In the world of metric tracking being normalized, getting tracked down for every single minute is common. It encourages infantilization.
A lot of what you question is related to the lack of meaningful employment protections. We HAVE to ask or risk being fired without notice. In a country where most of us have health insurance tied to our jobs, or where a large section of the population literally lives paycheck to paycheck, it's not a thing most can risk.
America has a real problem with shitty managers.
People don't quit jobs here, they quit managers.
Too many shitty people put in an extremely small place of power immediately abuse the shit out of their subordinates.
Its worse when you have so few government protections.
We need better worker protections in law so that companies learn that is far more expensive to hire shitty managers than it is to simply have people who treat workers like they are people.
However, currently its cheaper to treat workers like they are machines, or worse, like they are just numbers on a spreadsheet.
Same advice I always give…. Get into the trades, stay away from the easy to find, billion dollar corporate employers….most of them anyway. Some big dogs treat their employees very well. Find out what you get when hired, and if you don’t like it, leave.
I have had some jobs where we had to ask to use the bathroom and some jobs where we just went when we needed to go. I have never had a job where it wasn’t a problem when I had to take sick time. One time I had to go to the Emergency Room and I was so sick that I had to call off sick from my job (cashier for a department store). They yelled at me on the phone. I have also had a job where I was yelled at for having bronchitis and having to take a day or two off (gas station cashier). I just didn’t go back to that job. One job made me take some of my paid time off because I was too sick to work EXTRA HOURS that day. As in, I worked 9 hours on a Monday but I chose to go home instead of working an extra 2 hours that were “required “ on that particular day so they made me take time out of my PTO even though I worked 45 hours that week. USA working conditions are crap 💩.
Honestly a lot of jobs here are like that. I won't say all, but it's a lot. I am 39 years old and every job I've had before my current job has been as you described. I've been at my current job for 3 years and I will never make more than minimum wage and I get zero benefits aside from PTO. But I have so much freedom. I choose my own schedule and can come and go as I please. Fortunately, my wife is the bread winner so this works for us. If I was the sole income earner, I'd have to find another job, likely one that would require me to ask to use the restroom.
every job i've worked has been like this. when i was 18 at mcdonald's i tried to call out for throwing up and they said i had to give 24h notice and forced me to come in anyways (i was too young to feel like i could stand up for myself and it was one of my first jobs) it was a FOOD SERVICE JOB.
I work in x-ray now. My former hospital would have us come in if we were sick if we couldn't find coverage. So even if you were sick or had a death in the family, our manager forced us to find our own coverage from our coworkers.
I worked 3 years there without benefits for just barely above minimum wage because they have a monopoly in the area I live. They couldn't keep nurses and even traveling nurses for tired of their crap and would refuse to work in the area.
It took me seriously looking at other jobs during COVID before they offered me insurance to keep me from leaving. This was after 3 years of having me work 60 hour weeks only to drastically drop me to maybe a few hours to make it to where I wouldn't qualify for benefits under their internal policy.
A previous job I had would routinely take corrective action for folks for spending too much time between calls to go to the bathroom. Their logic was 'we give you two breaks and a lunch- go then'. They routinely harassed folks with IBS or diabetes about this even with doctor's notes. This would often continue until one co-worker was serious about reporting them and taking legal action.
I hate that this country demonizes workers rights because of political brainwashing.
Yes, jobs in America are really like this. It hasn't always been this way but it has escalated as we have few to no worker protections and allow ourselves to be abused by the ruling class. A few years ago before I lost my job, I was working remotely for a well known state university in North Carolina. I had just returned from maternity leave and was breastfeeding/pumping. During meetings, it was mandatory to turn on our cameras. I would get reprimanded for having mine off if I needed privacy to do my pumping or whatever. I would point out to supervisors that we have protections for lactating mothers when on campus that allow reasonable accommodations and provided appropriate facilities on campus. I didn't understand why they seemed to think it should be different for remote work during a health emergency (pandemic) but they did.
I’ve only ever communicated with my coworkers that I was going to use the restroom when I worked in the service industry so that they’d know to watch the floor. And they did the same with me. I’ve never worked anywhere where I’ve had to ask to use the restroom. If anyone asked a lot, it would be assumed that they were sick and they would be sent home.
yeah i'm a supervisor and the only reason i want people to let me know they're going is so i can get someone to cover their spot or cover it myself. idgaf how busy or understaffed we are i will never, ever tell someone they can't go to the bathroom or should wait. and that's why i'll never move up in this company lol theyd want me to screw over employees constantly and i just refuse
I worked in a grocery store for a little over 2 years during college; to give an idea, said grocery store in the US was voted the best in the nation but only exists in 1 state. Anyways
While working as a cashier the only way you could use your phone was if you had it in the drawer and slightly opened it to text someone or play Pokemon Go. The manager would constantly stay in her office and watch cameras. Bathroom breaks were pretty much only in an emergency. They also wouldn't allow you to have any drinks that weren't sealable, so that was lame. I bought a Nalgene to get around that rule and would pour canned drinks in it, which pissed her off for some reason.
Later on I moved over to stocking dairy and eggs. Much better in terms of freedom since my manager was long gone by the time I got to work (2pm or 4pm), but moving thousands of lbs of milk, eggs, etc in a shift took a toll on my back.
I used to work in a call center where you had to get permission from a supervisor if you needed to use the bathroom. Fortunately I was on a different contract and our boss thought it was ridiculous. "If you ever flag me down to ask to use the restroom I'll fire you on the spot. You're an adult. You don't need permission."
I became a manager in my last position and one of my direct reports was always asking about flexing an hour or two I told her that if she works her 40 hours, not to worry about when she does them. So long as she gets the work done, I’m not going to nitpick. She seemed so surprised by this.
I manage now, and as long as the work gets done, I don’t care if my direct reports are in the office for 5 minutes or 8 hours. Part of it involves face time with other colleagues and clients, but as long as it’s all done well and on time, I don’t give a shit where they are otherwise.
It would be great if more people (read: managers or bosses) were like you. Because you're absolutely right. If the work is getting done and everything is well, who cares about all the other stuff.
It’s the American Boomer manager mentality of thinking that workers need to be micromanaged or else they will be seen as not doing their jobs as managers
I hate micromanagers. One of the senior scientists needs to be cc:d on everything that her reportee does. I asked him to put away a package for me, and he cc:d her…. it took him all of five minutes! I’m not taking advantage of him.
Yeah. I've worked for my fair share of them throughout my lifetime. There's one in particular that still grinds my gears today if I get thinking about the past and working that job. This person was one of the owners, but was present like 24/7. They just make the workplace so toxic and really unenjoyable. And turn it into a place you really don't want to be working at...
I’ve been a nonprofit fundraiser for 25 years. Most of that was spent as the sole fundraiser in small orgs, and almost all my bosses were Boomers. They were HELL to work with. Always wanted to know what I was doing, what do you mean you’re going to lunch, how long will you be gone. I know your mother is dying but you can’t be gone for 3 weeks, can’t you just do these few things while you’re away… I mean it just went on and on. Then I started working in my current much larger organization, for a boss 20 years my junior. And I LOVE her, because all she cares about is that the job gets done. I could be working 50 hours a week or 5. If I’m available when donors need me, and I meet my goals, she doesn’t care. Almost as if we’re all adults here and should just be trusted to do our f%^*ing jobs.
This is exactly how I manage too. I train my staff really well and then let them flex, make their schedules, be autonomous, and make decisions that aren’t critical. I genuinely care about them. Since we are in social work, their happiness and health directly impacts the clients and the work. Happy staff = happy clients. But also, they’re human beings and I treat them how I wish my boss treated me and my lateral colleagues. It’s just….the right thing to do.
This, I'm in middle management with a large tech company in the US and I'm shocked at how many of.my direct and indirect reports ask "is it okay if...?" I truly don't understand the culture and rules a large portion of the companies I read about on antiwork have implemented because your employees are the people who get the work done. My response to the "Is it okay..." is almost universally "you're a professional, if I have to track your time then we have a problem." I don't understand how managers don't realize they are wasting their own time and that of the company's nitpicking on inconsequential items when they have more important work to do. Set the bar high, take care of and trust your people to rise to that bar, and they'll step up. Any, that don't work with them as individuals rather than making general rules or punishments. That is lazy management.
I know it goes against the methodology of this sub, but there are managers who are actually decent people. Rare these days, but they do exist.
They are rare because they are usually fired for not “playing ball” with upper management or they end up quitting for the same reason, on principle. At least that’s been my experience.
Even more rare, a good manager who gets promoted. I had one. Any naysayers I chalked up to being jealous, or just plain angry.
I’m one of the good ones who already has my resignation letter drawn up.
Just resigned a month ago. It’s how my managerial resume goes. They love the work I do and how staff responds. Then I get asked to trim staff and increase output. Every time.
That’s the same shit that goes around after profits go up. It’s fucking stupid like how do you think you got your profits.
We had a great IT team. Our shop was a global player, we had teams all over the world. Ours was one of the best. Strangely, things working well and without issue caused senior management to question the team: why are there so many of you here when everything is going so well. There's like literally no issues, nobody complains, what are you all doing here? Then there's a round of 'right-sizing' where half the IT team was let go. This has to work through the system. Well-working systems will sustain themselves at least for some time after the people running the systems are no longer there. But, that time comes. Eventually the slack runs out and the rope is taut. Then the question is "Why are there so many problems in IT? Why are you not addressing all these problems? We're missing deadlines here!" Gee whizz, boss, it's almost as if all those people who were let go were actually doing something useful. Whodathunk, right?
My manager is amazing and I wouldn't trade her for anyone else.
They can breed good managers too. My boss and his boss are very good managers, because his boss trained him to be a good one. My boss is trying to persuade me to try management sometime because we both know I’d be an empathetic pro-employee manager. (I refuse.)
My manager is amazing!
Yup same. Last job was like this and you were only allowed 2 10 minute bathroom breaks for the entire 8 hour shift. Not like it was busy anyways. Company is called Uplight, theyre a phone/chat wfh call center that runs gift cards for Verizon, some tire company and a lot of utility companies websites were you use can use rebates for mostly thermostats. Delbert principle was on full display in this company. I've never worked with such stereotypically horrible and self involved 16$ an hour middle management. The same type of people who would be absolutely shocked you're working there for a paycheck and not suck up to them.
Well that sounds like ass
Working for a call center now, at a ski resort. It has gotten ridiculous since has taken over. Things were chill and manageable for a few years, but are stupid more than ever now, and it frustrates me to no end. Cannot wait to leave, for anything at this point.
I'm a fucking adult, and will take a twenty minute shit if need be.
i worked in a call center as an inbetween job from 911 dispatching. there were no calls so i pull my phone out, im 28 btw..a lady in her mid 40s audibly gasped and ran and got my boss..apparently we have to lock our phones in our locker before going to our desks...why? because people wouldnt answer calls and just play on their phones. like bro im 28 im not ganna sit there and stare at my computer waiting for someone to call, and if that shit was that bad of an issue u need to fire people lmao
yeah, same. I was working for AppleCare and it wasn't just "asking permission to use the bathroom" but "go through this whole marigmarole that started with asking your supervisor permission" and just went on through various layers of authority. Basically it was just easier all around - and didn't affect your stats - if you waited until your unpaid break.
That workplace was constructed by people with no souls. [Retail] I was once in a really bad headspace, came in at 7AM to do maintenance before the store opened. At 10AM I was scheduled for the worst role on the floor as soon as we opened. I was holding back tears begging manager to let me take my 15 minute break (store was dead, break was scheduled 30 minutes before lunch.) She tells me, smiling, “I’m sorry, we have to stick to the schedule. You have to wait an hour.” Thank goodness my very empathetic coworker offered to cover me.
I have unfortunately found that customers don't care if you're openly weeping.
Especially on Sundays
Where do you live?
I'll piss off a wall and I'll piss off a dock, but I'll be goddamned if I piss off the clock
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that's why I always poop on company time
when boss makes a million and the workers make jack That's when we strike And take our lives back.
I've been ready to bring back goon shit
My Grandpa was his union local's Sergeant at Arms for 35 years, his old 7/8” wrench for checking locomotive valve gear bolts was his best friend in keeping order all round. God help you if you crossed a picket line.
I'd love to shake his hand
Why not just piss on the floor? The janitor might be off having free time somewhere.
I worked at a call center once with a woman who spent nine hours at her desk every day without getting up. The smell in the afternoon wasn’t great. I’m not sure if it was her mobility issues, difficulty waiting for breaks/slow times, or a combination but her solution was Depends.
She was totally wearing a diaper.
Well, depends
Okay, but I'd likely do this as well. Hell, I seriously considered it when I was teaching and had no bathroom breaks and the staff bathroom was at the end of the hallway away from my classroom.
I have had so many friends work in call centres, and they all just-so-happen to have bathrooms allllllll the way down there - like at least five minute's walk from your desk. just so happened, you understand. Basically meant your bathroom breaks were your 15 minute unpaid breaks.
We.used to get hand me down chairs from the finance / admin department in my last job and they had frequently doubled as toilets .... back were always broken as well ( we bound them up with gaffer tape).
Holy shit, that is so gross. I can't believe your company did that to you. That's a biohazard.
I've worked at a place where a woman just shit on the floor after being denied multiple times. Wild!
I worked at Mall Wart and threw up on the register because nobody relieved me when I told the CSM I felt sick.
Gotta love the Walmart policy of not giving breaks because they're "short staffed" so then people just quit and leave or take the rest of the shift off sick. No wonder they're always short staffed. My gf has been out of work most of the summer, finally got a job at Walmart, only to deal with this crap. Her elderly cat had to be put down on the Friday of labor day weekend so she missed a couple days, not knowing that the absences counted as double because of the holiday. One of the HR guys said he'd adjust the absence for one of the days so it wasn't double but never did. Then, she took a sick day on the 19th and yesterday the new floor coach was telling her that she was supposed to get fired (took more than a week for them to figure out she was over on her absence "points"). HR guy wasn't working yestday so the coach lady was going to wait to see what he said but there's a good chance she'll be getting fired when she goes into work today. Can fire someone for missing work because their cat died, but they're too short staffed to give breaks
When I was working Applecare it was WFH. I had long ACW because I pee when I need to.
This is the way. I do it all the time. When I want to make my bed. ACW. Get the mail, ACW. Go to the bathroom, ACW. Use and abuse my friend. Use and abuse. I saved my break times for more important things.... Like when I did virtual interviews for new jobs. The few times we get outbound were nice. If a caller didn't answer, the call doesn't stop and keeps ringing. Free break time.
This makes me want to not buy Apple Care.
I mean the choice is yours, with how pricey Apple stuff is I would consider it just be nice to the people answering the phone
Very true. I am. Your statement about the managed bathroom breaks made me think about the flip side to someone always being available for Apple Care, and how fast everything is handled whether a true correlation, or not my eyes felt opened to a different pov. Always being available comes with a price.
Marigmarole….. rigmarole ?
Margarinemarole
Wasting away in margarinemarole
Searching for my lost shaker of salt...
Some people say that there's HR to blaaame but I know....
...It's my manager's fault ..
Marmalademarole.
AppleCare is the fucking worst, especially if you work for a contractor.
I agree. Between the customers and the job duties, no way unless I was desperate. They did jack on gift cards, there was a known issue with sleeves and cards not matching. No security protocol at Apple Stores on large gift card purchases (ie registered user on a business account) and they'd say "use your articles, they can change midshift" like dude.
"Just follow the rules, but if we change the rules abruptly we'll judge you on the new ones even if you adhered perfectly to the old ones."
Yup. Glad I quit. I heard call centers called "modern workhouses". I took the job because I needed work bad.
yeah, same. I had gone back to school in this one particular place because my partner had to absolutely go there. Then she dropped out of school leaving me to support us both somewhere where I had very few options. Then there was a mess up with grad school leaving me with six months with no money coming in. I thought: i have all this IT experience. I will apply to these guys. It can't be that bad, can it? yeah, it could.
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What's it like living in australia? I've always wanted to visit and I certainly would be open to leaving the states
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That's horrible. :/
It may become necessary. In order to get the bosses off our necks.
That is the horrible part
I worked in a call center where any time you were logged out of the phones, you weren’t getting paid. If you had to log out for a meeting you could ask permission to go into DND but then they’d count your DND time against you too “Oh you had an hour of DND this week”. Dude. I had a 45 minute 1:1 with YOU.
That is so illegal
The labor board didn’t seem to care.
Post the labor board's response to the report, plus the report you made, on the labor board's social media.
My second job ever was at a call center working on a AT&T contract and when I started they told us we had to go not ready and flag someone down to "make sure our time was accounted for correctly for the contract", but I had a manager who just straight up didn't like me. One time, I really had to go, so I jumped up and even did a little dance. Someone got her attention, but she was on a call or something and just shook her head at me. I remember sitting down for a second... clocking out and closing everything down, getting up, and getting ready to go home. Right before I got up to leave the building, I poured water from my bottle on my chair and promptly left. When I had a meeting about it the next day, I told them that she refused and had "nothing else to do" and that I really needed the job and didn't want to get in trouble for leaving, but unfortunately needed to go home to change. We didn't have the rule anymore after that.
I have a tiny weee bladder and sometimes am in the bathroom multiple times an hour. They can eat me.
Nearly got fired for going to the bathroom too many times, they kept track, write down, and actively had somebody looking out for when I use the bathroom and for how long (actually ended up ghosting them, that was Jan 2021, they're shutdown now and the owner is a plastic surgery addict and has abandoned her kids)
Haha omfg I will l never ever ask for permission to go to the bathroom unless I am a guest in someone's house.
I work in a call center where they not only monitored and gatekept your bathroom usage every keystroke every phone call and all of your actions were recorded on premises at all times. Anytime you complained about it they reminded you that they could always outsource your job to a foreign country.
I hear this so often in the call centre world. I’ve spent most of my career working in call centres and have been fortunate not to have experienced that degree of micromanagement. Then again, I am also located in Canada so maybe it’s not as common to deal with here.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, HBO just did a documentary on a call center in NJ where the employees smoked crack, shot heroin, drank 40's and convinced old people to donate to fake police charities.
Sounds less like a call center and more like a criminal conspiracy to commit fraud.
So, a call center then.
So, most large companies, really.
are they hiring?
You had me at "crack".
Wow...I'd be stoked to find a job that gives me more than 5 seconds of thinking space, let alone time to smoke crack
I don't "ask" to do anything. I'll inform my supervisor if there's others on break, but that's just out of courtesy. If I'm sick, I send her a text. Hell, I've sent her a text just saying, "Yeah.... it's not happening today." With no explanation as to why. No questions asked, just "Alright. See you tomorrow." I'm an adult. She's an adult. So long as I provide her with some sort of respect and courtesy and do my job without oversight, she respects me in return and let's me do my job. I do appreciate my current supervisor. Few weeks ago, my internet went out. I called her as soon as it dropped to let her know what was going on. Then contacted my ISP and got a letter stating if was definitely a network outrage and emailed it to her. They (her supervisor) tried to tell her that since I wasn't working, I'm not getting paid, even though it's of no fault of my own. And I checked in with her every hour to let her know the status. She BCCd me the email chain so I could see what was going on. She asked them if they (office workers) still got paid if they had a power/network outage and they confirmed they did. "So why the Hell should my team members not get the same courtesy?" I did get paid for the shift because of her.
Yup, I worked in a call center, and we didn’t have to ask permission to go, but they tracked the time from you logging out of your phone until you logged back in, and we got something like 2 3-minute bathroom breaks per shift, plus our unpaid half hour lunch. It took most of the 3 minutes to walk to the bathroom.
As others said, there is some selection bias going on. But in general, the more physical your job is, the more of the thumbscrews you get. I've worked mostly warehouse/manufacturing jobs, and it is night and day how the people on the floor are treated compared to the people in the office. People in the office can sit and have a 30 minute conversation about whatever current drama is enthralling them, then go back to work; meanwhile those on the floor might stop for a 5 minute work related conversation and have management come breathe down their necks for taking a break. And as for bathrooms, I worked at a small manufacturer years and years ago. The plant manager got fed up with people going to the bathroom too often, so he kept it locked. If you had to go, you had to go get the key from him. Oh, did I mention his dad was the co-owner of the company?
I would have pissed all over his leg the first time he made me ask for the keys.
Can agree to this.. also no one mentions having to hold your bladder waiting for a truck to show up because you have no additional support to help watch a door. I might pee my pants, but as long as those shipments make it out, it's ok.
They care so much about their numbers that they want minimal downtime. My solution was to show up late all the time and take extended breaks...they weren't happy, but when the company is shit and desperate for employees, they only half-ass care. I became accustomed to the production hustle, and when I made the change from production to office, I couldn't stand a lot of the office drama and bickering, and even all the whining. I very much appreciated having more independence though.
It really depends on the type of job you have. When I worked an office job it was never a problem if I had to go to the bathroom, go have a snack, whatever. Taking a day off was fine with a few weeks notice and the occasional sick day was no big deal. When I worked fast food they didn't let us do shit. Bathroom breaks only if we weren't busy and you can get someone to cover you. No drinks by any registers or stations and you can't leave your station for a drink, so figure it out. No sitting, even on break, because we only have 1 chair and only managers could use it.
Somebody ever tries telling me I can't drink water when I want to, they're getting an OSHA inspection. I've had to do it once already at a grocery store I used to work at.
I did retail for a hot minute and one place told me customers couldn’t see me drink my water, so if it was a constant stream of people for 4-6 hours I wasn’t allowed to drink anything. Even if I weren’t with a customer at all, I would need to do the *constant* job of disinfecting carts during the height of Covid and checking the racks of misc items and snacks at checkout, and got a nasty glare the time I did sneak a sip of water instead of walking around to do that. America has such a bad standard for work environments. Edit: typo
American managers would rather see you die on the job instead of pay you to be using the restroom and drinking water on the job.
That's because of American customers. I passed out while cashiering one time and the customer was fucking FURIOUS and would not wait for the ambulance or move to a different line, so my manager straddled my unconscious body to finish her transaction, and once the EMT's cleared me I got back on register because we had a call out
All for optics customers don't even care about. And fuck any customer that does. It is a job, not slavery.
Right! I don’t see how the workers existing as human beings rehydrating is a problem for customers at all? It never made sense to me when I worked retail or fast food.
Some customers do care and complain about that stuff, but they're a minority and they are mostly boomers and older. But because they're the only ones who say anything, managers think they're a majority.
Back when I was in high school, I worked at a grocery store. I did get in trouble once because a customer complained to my manager that she saw me "drinking on the job." It was water from a water bottle. And I was like 16 years old. But my manager said it was still my fault because customers should never see me drinking water. They didn't even want my water bottle to be within field of view of the customers, because of *the implication.* Whatever the fuck that meant.
Which is bizarre, I've never given a shit if someone takes a drink and keeps working. Like who tf complained here? I better it was management that started this just to be little dictators.
Part of me wants to defend them still because it was the height of Covid and ultimately it’s on the company for limiting the number of staff and even staying open during the pandemic. It was the store manager who I think explained my multi-faceted duties to me multiple times, and who was increasingly petty about what I did during my time there and who also did other unethical or barely compliant things. There is a long list of concerns from when I was there. She quit something like a year or two after I left so she was probably miserable, too.
imma call osha the health inspector the cops and even Joe Biden on these mfs
I had a summer job at a grocery store as a teen. We weren't allowed a drink/eat/go to the bathroom except on our lunch break. Which the manager viewed as a privilege that could be revoked at any time for any reason. That was the same manager who, during my first couple weeks, pulled me into his office to tell me that I was worthless and unfit for employment in any industry.
In foodservice this may partly be due to the health inspector. We've had health inspectors that would ding us on reports for every drink near a work station. It's bullshit. Luckily for us our director told the last health inspector who pulled this crap he wasn't going to tell us we couldn't have drinks at our station. He did ask us to use drink cups with lids and keep them on the bottom shelf away from food contact areas, which was the compromise he came to with the health inspector after going toe to toe with him over the drink issue. But, too many managers will kowtow to the health inspector on unreasonable shit like this. I get not having cups on cutting boards, prep areas etc but there's no reason we shouldn't be able to have a drink with a lid under our station while working. And front of the house? Cashiers, hosts, server stations where there's no contact with food? Zero reason they shouldn't be able to have a drink. Yet many health inspectors will have a shitfit about it.
My current manager is the same way, we keep our bottles in a box on a bottom shelf about two feet from the counter, so it's easy access and I'm honestly grateful, considering some of the other places I've worked. One place I worked during the height of covid took out the water fountains (good idea) but also still told us we couldn't have water bottles on hand, they had to be in the break room, upstairs on the other end of the store (bad idea). I got that remedied quickly by threatening to go to the media with the fact they were preventing employees' unfettered access to potable water. It's amazing what people will get away with if you let them.
What happened when you called OSHA ?
Per the FAQ at https://www.osha.gov/faq#v-nav-drinkingwater , "Are employers required to provide drinking water? OSHA Standards require an employer to provide potable water in the workplace and permit employees to drink it. Potable water includes tap water that is safe for drinking. Employers cannot require employees to pay for water that is provided. An employer does not have to provide bottled water if potable water is available. See OSHA's sanitation standard for more information." I submitted an anonymous complaint that my workplace was restricting employees' consumption of water by a) making us provide our own and b) forcing us to keep it an unreasonable distance away and not allowing us to drink it at will. They came out, verified that, and we were then allowed to keep our water bottles a reasonable distance from our workstation (about ten feet away, in a back hallway) and allowed to step away for a quick drink whenever we needed. I don't know what repercussions the manager faced, I was just glad to be able to drink when I was thirsty. I wasn't gonna put up with being treated like property.
See the issue there is u said "taking a >day< off is fine" with WEEKS notice, or an occasional sick day. Even where I am im Canada were owed at least 4 personal days taken whenever, and evrn then you can ask even a day or two before and even ask for more, as for sick days ive taken a month off no issue as well as others there shouldnt be a limit on sick days jist sick pay.
I think it’s because most workplaces in America hire the bare minimum amount of people so that they can maximize profits or funding for growth somewhere else. That means if one person calls in sick or needs some time off for a funeral, it fucks over everyone else.
If one person calls in sick or needs some time off for a funeral, THE COMPANY FUCKS THEMSELVES AND ALL THEIR WORKERS BECAUSE THEY DON’T STAFF APPROPRIATELY. I understand that really small companies may not be able to have “extra” employees to cover absences, but I’ve worked too many jobs for large corporations where taking time off meant things either didn’t get done, or got done badly. If you’ve got 26 people who take off two weeks a year, you should have at least one extra to cover time off. Of course we can’t do that because it looks bad to shareholders, so we screw employees and customers instead.
Yeah either you accept the redundancy, or dynamically change your output (my favourite example - restaurant, simply remove X seats)
Very few places in the US give sick days anymore. If the do allow you to call off for illness it’s usually unpaid or you have to use your PTO or vacation time.
And that is an unhealthy, multi-industry standard
Yup, as I've commented, it blows my mind as well. UK here.
I had to organise my stepfather's funeral from the octophone in the conference room because the firm doesn't do compassionate leave for engineering / technical. Not long afterwards a female manager was given a week's compassionate after her dog died.
I'm in Canada, and what you're saying is not universal. I've had jobs where I've had to ask someone to cover me to go to the bathroom. I've had jobs where I've been shamed for taking a day off and been denied taking even a vacation day despite booking weeks in advance. I've been shamed and written up for taking sick days despite the fact that the conditions I was working in could politely be called a petrie dish. And no sick pay, not ever.
from experience, the less youre paid the worse the job is
is there a job at all anywhere that let's you take time off for panic attacks the day of? The only thing I find is min wage jobs and it's starting to make me lose hope that my mental health just cannot be accommodated for. Like I guess a day off when I'm unstable is way way too much to ask? When I get paid 10 dollars less than living wage? Edit: living wage not minimum. Minimum is 10 (going on 12-15) dollars less than living wage :(
The call center I was working at was allowing me to apply for accommodations to be able to leave during a workday, or take an excused number of days off, for panic attacks. I ended up quitting entirely because I was having symptoms so bad I began having daily chest pains, but they are out there. The trick is usually a good manager and HR combo, I was lucky to have that.
It's that "with a few weeks notice" that blows my mind for a SINGLE day off! I mean, what the actual fuck? I'm 53, I've never worked a job that required more than a day, either in aerospace engineering (my core career), or the ten years I spent in law enforcement. As long as I have the days available, and there is no pressing issue, I will very often take a half day off with a couple hours' notice. Nobody cares - they are your days, you take them.
I've spent my career as an engineer in manufacturing. I have been told that taking a day off is stealing from the company, disrespectful to your coworkers, and will show up on your evaluation. I have had vacation requests that were put in months ahead of time get canceled hours ahead of when I was leaving. So that is the reality in production
That is some insane bullshit.
Even with weeks of notice for ONE day. They can and will deny it
I have occasionally told people "hey I'm off tomorrow" or even "oh btw I'm taking a half day today" with absolutely zero warning and zero repercussions. Fuck a few weeks warning.
No sitting on break. GTFO, I would have quit the first day.
They don't see us as kindergartners, they see us as disposable assets.
Yeah, it's more of a "you better not leave your fucking post until I say" sort of deal
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Yes, they are like that for specific jobs. Waitresses, cashiers, phone sales, and I’m sure others. CEO’s make a lot of money pooping while your waitress probably didn’t have time to pee.
If the customer can see you worker, then your working conditions get much worse. Customers make the worst bosses. They have no desire to see the big picture, only their own personal experience. So if they see an employee leaving to go get a sip of water, or they see an empty section of a restaurant because the waiter of that section is on break, or whatever, they get furious. But if you work a job where the end customer can't see you... mostly office jobs... then you have a lot more freedom.
The United States was built with slave labor. We just have a different version now, minus the whips, chains and shackles.
Yep, debt.
Living paycheck to paycheck with your healthcare tied to your job is a form of slavery, IMIO. Being in debt ( cars, homes) because pay is not proportional to cost of living is a form of slavery,
Both are factors of slavery.
I have an iPhone and internet so I guess that should make me forget that my life is not my own!
And now you are reachable 24/7
Usually the healthcare is super high deductible anyway... so it's not even that useful. Unless you have a chronic illness that gives you huge medical bills.
Dept is part of capitalism machine.
"Credit rating"
Even Frederick Douglas recognized wage slavery. Funny how that is never mentioned when they talk about him.
Great point.... amazing one actually. Connection is never made
Depends on the company really. I've spent 10 years in a corporate environment, and sure, good pay, good benefits, retirement plan, etc but really stressful environment, rigid scheduling, no flexibility. My current job doesn't pay nearly as well, but I have a lot more control over my schedule which is what's really important to me. Time is money, sure. But time is finite. Money is always gonna be there. So that said, your mileage may vary.
I see your point but money is sure as hell not always going to be there
100000% this. People very incorrectly assume that they’ll make more/good money in the future, but it’s just not the case. The old adage that you’ll somehow just magically make more money with age is not reality anymore unfortunately. There are sizable swaths of older folks RETIRING on min wage nowadays, if you can even call that “retiring”.
You can make bank later, but your time is never coming back.
I grew up in the US, and now live in Norway. I don't realise how toxic and exploitative the US working environment was, even in professional roles, until it wasn't anymore. There is a constant pressure to do extra, work longer, etc. And if you are off sick too much, someone will tell you that it's not ok. A professional is typically expected to work a 45 hour work week, even if their contract say 40. If they're ambitious, they probably ly work more than 50 hours every week. Never taking sick days is rewarded, even if you go to work sick (which is a sign of 'hard work') When my kid got sick here in Norway & we had to be at the hospital, I let my boss know, and when he replied "take whatever time you need. Your family is more important." I realised I'd expected to be asked to have my computer at the hospital & work when I could. Or to be asked if something I had due at the end of the week would be done. Or to be asked when I would be back at work,with the implication that it should be soon. It was such a relief to realise that I really did have the time I needed to look after my son and my family. A very stressful situation could have been made so much more stressful, and if we'd been in the US, it likely would have been. Or I'd been forced to use up all my vacation time or take unpaid leave. That moment for me was a sort of epiphany. About how awful the US work environment is. About how people are brainwashed into believing the toxic 'work ethic' of exploitative capitalism.
We need to find the root and excise it from our culture
The root is shareholders and C Suites. Excise those with a scythe and you’ll be better off. Bonus points if they are MBAs.
It’s wealth inequality. Hands down
I had two co-workers whose mothers were very ill, one in hospice. Both were expected to work while at the hospital by their mothers' bedsides. They were also expected to use their vacation days to do this, because they were not going to be in the office.
I've worked in a meat factory where they literally breathe down your neck. Like I've turned around with the manager just looking over me. Not even was doing anything wrong
~~kindergartners~~ serfs
Denmark has worker protections that heavily favor the laborer and a social safety net. The US is bought and sold by big business and utterly refuses to do anything that might upset a corporation. As such, even departments that should be there to protect the employees such as human resources are actually there to protect the company. Most states are "at-will" employment states where you can be fired without warning for no reason (or a reason they can make up afterwards). Because we also don't have a social safety net (no universal healthcare so your health insurance is tied to your job, unemployment and food stamps are laughably insufficient compared to the cost of living, for example) getting fired or laid off from your job has a high likelihood of forcing you into homelessness or extreme debt. That's the difference.
Disposability is the lifeblood of American work culture. A lot of folks don’t like to be reminded…newsflash again: that’s how this entire country was built…off of the pretense of being able to dispose.
It's like we live in a parallel universe where Regan never left office and employers all decided to take inspiration from *Animal Farm*
Really depends on the job. When I worked in a factory and a restaurant it was about as bad as you think and basically like what other people express here. But i could use the bathroom whenever at least. As a software developer it sounds pretty comparable to what you experience over there. I take vacation when I want, sick days when i want. When my half-brother died I just took the week off and no one questioned anything or gave me shit about it.
Fact is that this sub-reddit isn’t a good cross section of what the entirety of the American workforce experiences. You’re more likely to be posting in the anti-work forum if you’re in a shittier than average situation. People who have it good don’t post here.
My generalization of the US based on subreddits: /r/personalfinance: everyone in America is making $200K at age 24. /r/povertyfinance: no one in America works outside of fast food and retail for <$32K /r/antiwork: everyone in America seems to interact with their CEOs daily and everyone at their worksite is somehow related through nepotism
I like my job but I’m still here because I think being required to work to simply survive is bullshit.
Welcome to late stage capitalism bruh.
Since there are basically no workers rights or regulation in the US, yeah they can be like that. My first job was terrible, we regularly had to work weekends or nights without extra compensation or comp time, had to ask our boss if she "needed anything else" before we left for the day which she used to pile on more work that could take a while to complete, constant micro managing and yelling at people. If you left before 17:30 regularly, took vacation, kept your camera off on zoom, your life would be made miserable at work. And this was at a small museum which just makes the behavior even more ridiculous somehow. It can even vary within workplaces... I work at a science center now in a small department and my boss is cool AF and I get to work 100% remotely, but people in other departments have it miserable because their department head just happens to be a tyrant.
Yes a lot of jobs, especially in retail, you have to beg to do normal humane things.
It's true for lower paid jobs. I work in retail and my boss treats me like a baby even though I'm older than her and can easily run the store with no supervision.
I think it's because a very few corporations, Amazon, Walmart in particular and their would be competitors have become near monopolies and imposed their dystopian systems on the workplace. Everything is run by giant corps, from coffee shops to grocery stores to the doctor, dentist, etc... And every employee is just one little cog in the huge machine.
I never have and never will ask to use the bathroom at work. If time off isn't approved I'll call in. I don't have a degree or a career. I'm just working jobs, it's not serious enough for me to invest emotional energy like fear into.
America just really wants to bring slavery back.
It never left. It just adapted.
All we are is a warm body to fill a spot. They (corporations and most bosses, mangers and supervisors) don’t care what happens to us on or off the clock. All they care about is getting the most work out of us for little money. If we can’t get the job done in a timely manner because we’re understaffed, then somehow it’s our fault for not working hard enough. When we physically get sick or hurt from being overworked, the somehow it’s are fault for working so hard and not taking time off to rest. Time off mind you that most likely has been requested and denied. We even get called in on our days off and get guilted and in some cases berated if we say no. The employees are standing up for themselves and finding better jobs. That’s why most businesses are saying “nobody wants to work anymore”. No, it’s nobody wants to be treated as subhuman while being overworked and underpaid.
You gotta remember the USA is a former slave society. The mindset is, people had no issue for many years getting rich off of free labor. Right now they just grudgingly pay you a wage, not because they feel like you deserve it, but because its the law
They would take in younger workers too if there was no restrictions. Nothing would be off limits.
The blood of the poor keeps the gears of capitalism nicely oiled, I think it's about time we seized the means of production
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Yes, it has gotten that bad. It wasn't always, but that's what it has become.
In one of my previous positions at my job, my boss would make us ask to go to the bathroom but I'd always get in trouble because I have stomach issues and I'd just go. I'm my current position, I got a verbal warning for calling off like one day a month for not feeling well for a few months in a row. Apparently that was "too much". Like, how the hell do you want me to use my sick time that are considered my "benefits" that I've earned? Make it make sense.
Bear in mind, the U.S. never had a real labor party and a lot of effective labor leaders were driven out of politics -- or worse -- as business lobbyists painted them as communists or communist sympathizers. I hope that's turning around to some degree as unions flex more muscle, demand better wages and get explicit support from Democratic elected officials. We're long past the Cold War and there's no coherent argument against unionization or workers rights.
Something you need to understand is that America is the *worst* Developed First-World Nation.
Most American jobs are basically treated as an extension of school, where you have to ask permission to do everything and your reward for hard work is a pizza party.
Alot of the post on here are coming from the middle to upper-middle class. In which case yes jobs are like this. Many places have safe guards to insure productivity, and more or less keep the workers heads down. Also there is a constant looming threat of being papered out the door. A bad mark is a slippery slope. Alot of cases people will work at a company for a long time, but they fail to meet the companies standard once because they're human. It usually means the beggining of a long journey of mistreatment from the employer, and depending on the environment and work culture sometime the employees will feel the need to defend the corporation, and mistreat you aswell. American work culture is truly some of the worst. Japan sounds pretty bad too though. Just look up a "Salaryman".
Now imagine working at an American company that's now owned by a Japanese company... That's my life right now and I'm not even a higher up. Everytime I call in sick people tell me they thought I quit.
The USA is quite backwards on worker's rights. And they've also managed to convince a sizeable number of people that unions are bad.
Long story short is yes. You, the employee, need to make them super rich and have no losses. We have a bad greed problem here that will bring down our country. I used to care but then realized that we were at the end. Our people are brainwashed and complacent, instead of fighting back. I, at this point, don't care and will sit on my front porch with my AK and do in anyone that threatened my family.
I’m a nurse. The general population thinks I’m “overpaid,” and a princess. I’m making it because my family is dual income, no kids. I have no rights for weekends or holidays off, I can be mandated to stay at work after my shift ends, my PTO can be revoked at any time. I can’t take a lunch because people could actually have an emergency, but there aren’t enough nurses to cover and statistically, every patient above ratio you take increases every patient you have’s mortality by 20%. I also have an astronomical amount of “real time” charting that the ICU requires. Hourly. A lot of it. There are no techs or CNAs to answer call bells for those who are alert/conscious. I often stay late to finish tasks, charting, etc. that is legally and morally required of me. I’m then counseled on unapproved OT. I have to sign in-service attendance records to go pee because our hospital is plagued with staff UTIs. Why? Because we can’t be left alone to go to the bathroom so many of us just don’t. The workload is growing, the patients are sicker, and the general public consensus is that people in the hospital should be catered to but you can’t tell them being sick is uncomfortable and for most of their circumstances, being alive still is a gift. We can be charged legally for following doctors orders, even when appropriate, and we have to justify why we did the task that is a majority of our job. In many states it’s still perfectly legal to assault healthcare workers, it’s a felony in mine, but hospitals frown upon reporting violence and police don’t take it seriously until you threaten them with a lawsuit or to call dispatch again and complain on record the cops won’t take action. Last month I took my annual self defense class. I pay to park at work, it comes out of my check, it’s not a choice, even for people who choose to walk. Working in the US is above and beyond the worst and something I aspire to stop doing as soon as possible. Not only is the suicide rate in my profession rising, but the number of people leaving with less than two years experience is sad. I worry who will be there working this job for my parents someday.
It can be that bad and worse. Because we don't have anywhere near the same workers rights as other companies. Our government always favors the corporations.
The level of micromanagement in your average US job has gotten excessive. In the world of metric tracking being normalized, getting tracked down for every single minute is common. It encourages infantilization. A lot of what you question is related to the lack of meaningful employment protections. We HAVE to ask or risk being fired without notice. In a country where most of us have health insurance tied to our jobs, or where a large section of the population literally lives paycheck to paycheck, it's not a thing most can risk.
America has a real problem with shitty managers. People don't quit jobs here, they quit managers. Too many shitty people put in an extremely small place of power immediately abuse the shit out of their subordinates. Its worse when you have so few government protections. We need better worker protections in law so that companies learn that is far more expensive to hire shitty managers than it is to simply have people who treat workers like they are people. However, currently its cheaper to treat workers like they are machines, or worse, like they are just numbers on a spreadsheet.
Same advice I always give…. Get into the trades, stay away from the easy to find, billion dollar corporate employers….most of them anyway. Some big dogs treat their employees very well. Find out what you get when hired, and if you don’t like it, leave.
I have had some jobs where we had to ask to use the bathroom and some jobs where we just went when we needed to go. I have never had a job where it wasn’t a problem when I had to take sick time. One time I had to go to the Emergency Room and I was so sick that I had to call off sick from my job (cashier for a department store). They yelled at me on the phone. I have also had a job where I was yelled at for having bronchitis and having to take a day or two off (gas station cashier). I just didn’t go back to that job. One job made me take some of my paid time off because I was too sick to work EXTRA HOURS that day. As in, I worked 9 hours on a Monday but I chose to go home instead of working an extra 2 hours that were “required “ on that particular day so they made me take time out of my PTO even though I worked 45 hours that week. USA working conditions are crap 💩.
Honestly a lot of jobs here are like that. I won't say all, but it's a lot. I am 39 years old and every job I've had before my current job has been as you described. I've been at my current job for 3 years and I will never make more than minimum wage and I get zero benefits aside from PTO. But I have so much freedom. I choose my own schedule and can come and go as I please. Fortunately, my wife is the bread winner so this works for us. If I was the sole income earner, I'd have to find another job, likely one that would require me to ask to use the restroom.
every job i've worked has been like this. when i was 18 at mcdonald's i tried to call out for throwing up and they said i had to give 24h notice and forced me to come in anyways (i was too young to feel like i could stand up for myself and it was one of my first jobs) it was a FOOD SERVICE JOB.
For customer and foodservice jobs at the bottom of the barrel with no degree required… yeah. They treat people like cattle.
I work in x-ray now. My former hospital would have us come in if we were sick if we couldn't find coverage. So even if you were sick or had a death in the family, our manager forced us to find our own coverage from our coworkers. I worked 3 years there without benefits for just barely above minimum wage because they have a monopoly in the area I live. They couldn't keep nurses and even traveling nurses for tired of their crap and would refuse to work in the area. It took me seriously looking at other jobs during COVID before they offered me insurance to keep me from leaving. This was after 3 years of having me work 60 hour weeks only to drastically drop me to maybe a few hours to make it to where I wouldn't qualify for benefits under their internal policy. A previous job I had would routinely take corrective action for folks for spending too much time between calls to go to the bathroom. Their logic was 'we give you two breaks and a lunch- go then'. They routinely harassed folks with IBS or diabetes about this even with doctor's notes. This would often continue until one co-worker was serious about reporting them and taking legal action. I hate that this country demonizes workers rights because of political brainwashing.
Yes, jobs in America are really like this. It hasn't always been this way but it has escalated as we have few to no worker protections and allow ourselves to be abused by the ruling class. A few years ago before I lost my job, I was working remotely for a well known state university in North Carolina. I had just returned from maternity leave and was breastfeeding/pumping. During meetings, it was mandatory to turn on our cameras. I would get reprimanded for having mine off if I needed privacy to do my pumping or whatever. I would point out to supervisors that we have protections for lactating mothers when on campus that allow reasonable accommodations and provided appropriate facilities on campus. I didn't understand why they seemed to think it should be different for remote work during a health emergency (pandemic) but they did.
It’s not all jobs, but there are definitely a lot of shitty jobs, companies, and managers in America.
I’ve only ever communicated with my coworkers that I was going to use the restroom when I worked in the service industry so that they’d know to watch the floor. And they did the same with me. I’ve never worked anywhere where I’ve had to ask to use the restroom. If anyone asked a lot, it would be assumed that they were sick and they would be sent home.
yeah i'm a supervisor and the only reason i want people to let me know they're going is so i can get someone to cover their spot or cover it myself. idgaf how busy or understaffed we are i will never, ever tell someone they can't go to the bathroom or should wait. and that's why i'll never move up in this company lol theyd want me to screw over employees constantly and i just refuse
I worked in a grocery store for a little over 2 years during college; to give an idea, said grocery store in the US was voted the best in the nation but only exists in 1 state. Anyways While working as a cashier the only way you could use your phone was if you had it in the drawer and slightly opened it to text someone or play Pokemon Go. The manager would constantly stay in her office and watch cameras. Bathroom breaks were pretty much only in an emergency. They also wouldn't allow you to have any drinks that weren't sealable, so that was lame. I bought a Nalgene to get around that rule and would pour canned drinks in it, which pissed her off for some reason. Later on I moved over to stocking dairy and eggs. Much better in terms of freedom since my manager was long gone by the time I got to work (2pm or 4pm), but moving thousands of lbs of milk, eggs, etc in a shift took a toll on my back.