S1E4: My Boss Called Me 22 Times On My Day Off

Terrible communication, completely unreasonable expectations, no respect for annual leave. This is the story where the company got it wrong at almost every single opportunity.

To start off with the communication is an absolute joke. The fact that they have two whatsapp groups with blatant favouritism is just ridiculous.

The second point is that they are simply not staffed properly. The result of which they spend their time badgering everyone to work extra shifts and laying the guilt on hard.

This story just gets progressively worse and finishes with a huge hypocrisy at the end. Well worth a listen.

#worstboss #annualleave

[Zachary_Sweis]

I worked at a big chain pharmacy around 2008 - 2009 (50% chance you'll guess which one).
I always took a picture of the new schedule when it got printed and hung up so I can reference it if I ever needed.
My manager called me a couple times on my day off. I missed the calls because I was seeing a movie. I called back and he starts berating me for doing a no-call-no-show. I told him it was my day off. He told me he was currently looking at the schedule and I'm not off.
I sent him a text of the pic I took of the new schedule literally the day before. When he got it, he said the schedule changed and it was my responsibility to check it.
I told him it's not my responsibility to call or go up to work on my day off on the off chance that the schedule changes. The schedule can change at literally any time. What am I supposed to do, call work every single morning and ask what the schedule is just in case it changed? What's the point of having a schedule if I can't check it once for the week and have it be accurate? What's the point of a shift manager if she can't communicate shift changes to her team?

[tomarmstrong]

Completely relate to the guilt tripping when you don't jump to cover a shift, it's not the employee's responsibility to deal with shortness of staff!

[NighDarke]

Never answer your phone, texts, or email when you're off work. Ignore it all. You're not on their time or their dime so you're under no obligation to respond.

[magscat]

I had a boss tell me "we're a family here" I cut him off with "nope. You people are not my family. You are work and that is where you will stay" I do not answer their calls in my off time. I show up on time, every time. I bust my butt when I'm on the clock and I clock the F*** out at the time I'm scheduled to. I don't get paid enough to care beyond that.

[masterodungeons]

After over 20 years as a chef this story isn’t even a rare occurrence. This is pretty much the standard for over 90% of places in hospitality

[brandyaldrighetti]

I went 21 twelve hour days in a row...on my 1st day off work called so I ignored it and hopped in the shower... they came to my house and walked in while I was still in the shower ( I live in a very small town... nobody locks their doors) it got so bad that the night before any day off I'd leave town and pay for a hotel room just somewhere in the stix with no cell service just so they couldn't find me.

[readingfcdec]

as someone who has worked in hospitality for 12 years, this is very common unfortunately. The lack of breaks, constant calls on days off to work, unpaid overtime. The industry can be awful

[chrisdonnellyofficial]

This is about as unorganised as a workplace can be, completely understand why he left, hopefully he can find a better role!

[unbasedcontrarian]

Keep it up man, we need more visibility on this kind of corporate abuse

[TheJhn]

"We're a family"... Yeah, a dysfunctional family.

[debbiethomas]

It is a legal requirement in the UK that payslips are provided by, or not later than on, your pay date; it is not optional. I'd also be concerned about whether they are actually submitting to HMRC the tax and NI contributions that you can only assume they're deducting from your salary.

At one point in my life I did an NVQ in computers and went on a 5-day job trail with a local employer. The atmosphere in the office was awful. I was seated beside two women who shared a table but who hated each other and hadn't spoken directly to each other for three years! It was ridiculous. It was the longest 4 1/2 days I've ever spent working, because it was most boring work I've ever done. The bosses just had me doing mountains of photocopying - everything had to copied 5 times and distributed to 5 managers, who just threw the documents in the waste paper bin (some of them 50 or more pages long). When I asked another colleague about it she said it was because they knew the contents were unlikely to ever be raised again and if they were they would blame whoever "was supposed to have copied and distributed it for not doing so". After 4 days I said I was leaving and was told they were very disappointed with me because I hadn't given them a chance. They didn't deserve one.

[aidanjones]

A good few years ago I went to Florida on holiday. My boss at the time informed my team that I had to be awake at the same time as they were. So every morning (until I turned my phone off before bed) I would get a call at roughly 4am/5am EST to get me up. His reasoning was “if we had any questions, we need to get hold of you quickly”

[simon]

"We're a family" the Adams Family 😂

[Trigger]

Seriously it's called enforcing boundaries. Luckily in Australia we have unfair dismissal legislation. Though it doesn't always stop them. Had a colleague who was fired for going to the fair work commission to lodge a complaint about being deliberately underpaid. Idiots actually put that as the reason for her termination. Let's just say she got all her underpaid wages + 26 weeks pay for wrongful termination.

Of course they still were stealing wages, the rest of my department quit and then lodged a class action against the company. That payout was soooo satisfying.

[alisonjennings]

Totally get it, I am also a supervisor and work in hospitality. New management inserted into the buisness, (who have now taken a 'partnership' in the Pub), who have NO idea how to manage!! 🙁
You only have 2 WhatsApp groups?? ....currently I have FIVE!!! Not including the staff that message outside of these groups!! Sick of the micro managing - especially when I start questioning myself about how I work and my decision making - knee-jerk and crisis management, guilt tripping, no encouragement, low morale - these people are DEFINITELY NOT MANAGING!! to say, I'm looking for alternative employment!! 💩

[katehobbs]

The worst words in any organisation, club, office, whatever …”we’ve always done it this way”.

[christophernuckolls]

I worked at a retail store in my last job before I got into white collar work. I was an assistant manager of a store with only two front shop staff dealing with customers (everyone else worked in the back shop). The store manager hurt his knee and needed surgery that was going to keep him out for a month. The expectation fell on me to work 30 days straight, alone, open to close, no lunch breaks, no breaks at all. I would drive 30 minutes to work to get there at 6:00 a.m. to get the store ready to open at 7, work until the store closed at 9 p.m., then clean the store and do the closing, leave around 10 or 10:30 p.m., often having not eaten since the early morning, drive 30 minutes home, fall into bed around 11, then get up at 5 to do it again. I did it for a month straight. Literally nobody from the company, not even my manager who got a month's paid vacation, said thank you. I didn't get an ounce of recognition. It motivated me to change careers and now I'm happy in a great industry where I am respected and appreciated.

[liamkeating]

Had a CEO that got Covid at a confrence we attended together and he didn't tell me for a week. Also tried to get some of my pregnant coworkers to use his wife's weird home birthing app which has to be viloating some kind of code

[jackwaycombe]

To be honest, that business doesn't seem incompetent to me. I suspect they were running some kind of fraud. I'm betting that overtime was in fact paid, but ended in the wrong pockets, which is why the payslips were so elusive.

[animelove]

Its not demeaning to cleaners for an employee to not want to do cleaning when that’s not part of their job description, it is absolutely demeaning to cleaners for an employer to believe that cleaning jobs aren’t their own job that someone should be specifically hired to do. They’re treating it like it’s not “really a job” by having non-janitorial employees randomly do it. (It’s also probably gross in there. This is especially common in retail and it’s awful.)