you dont know what "hell" is untill you work at a place like this *long*

[tacohuman]

a definition of 'right to work', from the national right to work legal defense foundation:

A Right to Work law secures the right of employees to decide for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union. However, employees who work in the railway or airline industries are not protected by a Right to Work law, and employees who work on a federal enclave may not be.

i think the phrase being looked for wherein either the employer or employee can terminate employment at any time for any or no reason is 'at will'. from legaldefinitions.com:

If an employee is not under contract, he or she is an at-will employee. An employer can dismiss an at-will employee hired for an indefinite term at any time for any non-discriminatory reason. Likewise, the at-will employee is free to terminate their employment at any time. The at-will employment doctrine, however, is being eroded in many states. Some challenges and exceptions to at-will employment include: breach of implied contracts through employee handbooks, public policy violations, reliance on an offer of employment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Unfortunately for at-will employees, you can get fired for any number of job-related, and non-job related reasons; for instance, your supervisor can fire you if he or she doesn’t like the clothes you wear, of if you tell lame jokes, or even if you simply rub your employer the wrong way.

that being said, that sounds like a horrible place to work, so good for you for leaving it.

[Kiwi]

I wouldnt have lasted a week.

That wasnt work, that was punishment

[Think Blue]

I'm wondering if this place is an at will employer. beacuse an at will hiring is defined as, any hiring is presumed to be "at will"; that is, the employer is free to discharge individuals "for good cause, or bad cause, or no cause at all," and the employee is equally free to quit, strike, or otherwise cease work

[XCashier]

So I started to tell them why... basically laying out the issues in this post (censored and as respectfully as I could). They actually laughed at me.. aparently they only get 2 hours of sleep per night and work so much harder and thought my issues were just silly.

Did you check their backs to see if they had wind-up keys sticking out?!

I bet you anything they were lying to you (two hours of sleep per night, my arse!) to make you feel wimpish for demanding basic human rights. These guys weren't bosses, they were slave drivers. And I feel awful you had to put up with that abuse.

Glad you got out of there, but had it been me, I'd have turned them in a LONG time ago for hostile work enviornment, unsafe working conditions, and a whole plethora of other things. I'd have nailed their sorry asses to the wall.

Same here. Nobody should have to work in those conditions. No lunch breaks, no bathroom breaks, filthy conditions, 12 hour shifts?! That's inhumane. Divine Justice / Karma / Fate / whatever will get them, but not quickly enough. They deserve to have the Law throw the book at them.

[novicecrafter]

at will employment

This whole at will employment thing is really a pain. I cant believe they even try and make it sound fair "you can quit or leave at any time" . Of COURSE we can, we arent chained to the station in a sweatshop. We can always leave at any time. They are the only ones benefiting from this arrangement. It sure goes a long way in keeping people from complaining... about anything. It really makes a joke of the anti discrimination thing too. "ooh we didnt fire her because she was in a protected class" ... "we didnt like the way she tied her shoes... or the fact that she uses two taco bell sauce packets rather then one on her taco..."

I would also like to mention that they bold faced lied to me about several things. I was shown during my orientation HOW to clock out for a lunch break. (leading me to believe that I would have one- and having never worked at a job before that didnt give you one- even down in florida- added to my assumption) They even had my trainer let me go on lunch my first day.. but when I asked for it the next the manager literally didnt know what I was talking about..."lunch break"??

I understand the concept "if you dont like it here work somewhere else", in fact its almost an irrefutable arguement. However after youve invested $150 on your uniform you are hesitant to let it go to waste. Also if you have bills that must be paid at a certain time each month it is hard to afford the 2-3 week period (if you are lucky) of no income while you get another paycheck from a different job. There are so many ways to manipulate people into doing what you want *sighs*

[thegiraffe]

For the sake of everyone else working there (as well as the general public), I'd contact OSHA. Basically, show them this post and it should speak for itself. Also, you could call the Health Department. As a food-serving establishment, some of the stuff I saw (i.e. water on the floor of the kitchen) is a HUGE no-no. I'm in Florida and work at a grocery store, so we get visits in our fresh departments (bakery, deli, etc). It's really sad that you hd to go through this - you absolutely shouldn't have. At any rate, OSHA and the Health Department would be incredibly interested to hear what you have to say, I'm sure.

[novicecrafter]

reply

-thegiraffe
I may do that it wasnt as if it would be flooded and cleaned imediatly. I went to work several days where I had to sat to myself "crap its going to be flooded all day AGAIN". I knew it would stay that way for the entire day- the didnt have cleaning staff on during the day (only overnight and they leave before the store opens)

[COMINATCHA]

Oh my god, you poor thing. I felt so incredibly sorry for you after reading that, that I almost cried! I have no idea how you managed to last as long as you did *HUGS*

[PuckishOne]

Slight hijack

I still don't understand how being in a RTW state would make it easier to fire you?

If I understand it (and that's always a big if ), what Florida calls "right to work" is what we in Washington call "at-will," meaning that an employee can leave at any time without notice or cause, and likewise an employer terminate employment at any time without notice or cause. It's basically the no-fault divorce of the working world.

[SuperDan]

I would have been on the phone with OSHA within the first month... from my desk while on the clock. If the store had a digital camera (for taking pictures of theives, damaged stuff for insurance purposes, etc) I'd have used it to send evidence to OSHA. Believe it or not just not giving you your lunch break will result in a HUGE fine from OSHA if you hurt yourself toward the end of a shift. You would have been more able to avoid the situation if the company didn't cause you fatigue.

But that's just me. I'm usually nice, and like you can put up with alot of shite for the sake of the customers and good employees, but everybody has a breaking point and you don't want to cross mine.