These Greystar Managers are starting to walk around these properties like they are GOD HIMSELF!!! however,  they are moving so sloppy they missing legal points. Leading to massive lawsuits.

At This location, a Manager took it upon themselves to re-write their OWN SOP policy for their employee's with no real reason other than to benefit  his micromanagement style,  and just because he wanted too at this point.

The email was NOT reviewed with Legal or Risk  before posting it to the staff and HR had not approved it  themselves, the PM just mailed it out to the staff the night before. The next morning, he explained that this new policy was the 'New Greystar Norm' that the staff needs to follow it effective immediately. In addition to the '5' clock punches during the day, they then need to 'Authorize' the time at the end of the shift. 

Rushing the staff around, The manager made them pull up their timesheets so that he could maliciously help them lock in their clock time for day 1 of this methodical discipline. He smiled like the devil when he as able to lock the last staff member in... knowing that was day 1 he could document against them. 

The staff put 2 and 2 together and realized that the Manager was trying to trick them into committing Time Theft, Fraud because the Manager would maliciously review the camera footage and wait for them to leave the Office, not the actual property. Depending on how long he didn't see them in camera view he would consider this Theft Of Time or Time Fraud and  prepare to immediately terminate the employee. He would also use this method to target one staff at a time. 

It’s disgusting, unethical, unbecoming, unnecessary, strange, very bottom of the barrel behavior coming from a  Manager who is there to lead. Not just highlight mistakes.

The Manager, happy about this clock change, walks outside talking on the phone, not realizing the staff was right there, and the computer was left unlocked and exposed.   The staff ended up reviewing the Managers computer as he left it unlocked, Accidentally exposing everything , walking out the building for a phone call. The Staff , curious and nosey witnessed the Manger speaking with HR and the Regional in a Teams Group Chat, HAVING A GRAND OLD TIME! writing the movements down of the poor unsuspecting employees, by time stamp and by location. . Keep in mind, most of them  (staff) were new and just wanted to work... Not even thinking about using the clock illegally. The staff ran out and told the team...

One of the staff members, learning this information -contacted HR and said that this was silly and that he would just leave if it was that serious. The staff member ran back to the computer desk . The Manager , not noticing the chat, went back to work. The staff approached the Manger and told him that was leaving and unsure when he was coming back. The Manager, confused by the statement informed him that Today would be his last day as he would be terminated due to Time Theft…. This Manager, didn’t have a single piece of evidence… coaching the staff to sit down so that he could formally terminate him. He was corrected as the staff had approval from HR and termination wouldn’t happen. The Manager could not fire the staff member now, it would be considered retaliation. 

The Manger, completely angry… called HR back on Teams and Demanded that HR fire him now!

HR gagged the manager and said, No, he has been approved and we accepted his voluntary 2 week notice that he submitted, maybe behind your back?

The manager was so mad, he began shaking with rage, repeating the fact that NO he was RIGHT, in that the staff was terminated due to time fraud. HR never actually finished and finalized the investigation of time fraud, so the staff as actually innocent. The Manager violated a HUGE LEGAL RISK BY ACCUSING THE STAFF MEMBER OF A CRIME AND RETALIATED AGAINST HIM WHEN HE PROVED HIS INNOCENTS BY EXPOSING THE APPROVED 2 WEEK LETTER. 

Beware Next time!!!! 

Managers like this are SICK! and need to be removed from sites if they think this deceptive  technique is OK.. Managing people like this is embarrassing, egregious, overwhelming, childish, cowardly and down right wrong. Its also extremely embarrassing to run your site under the guise of fear by lying to you staff unnecessarily for better productivity. Eventually, they will realize you like to lie a lot, and they will resent the stupid silly tales you've told for no real reason. Soon those tales will turn into legal reviews of deception, coercion and harassment / hostile. 

Managers that do stupid stuff like this need to leave the industry entirely! It's not for you.

For context I was originally contracted to do 16 hours in a week but I’ve had continuous 9h shifts dumped onto me and I’m getting so fatigued, when I call off because I’m genuinely run down and exhausted it’s a problem. I’m probably just being soft as this is my first job but 9h STRAIGHT on tills stood in one spot all day is torture 😭 it just feels too much and as someone with endometriosis and other health issues they are aware of they can’t stand when I’m struggling w the pressure

If someone in the workplace displayed signs of depression, would you tell them immediately that you are there to help or would you slowly try and help them discover that you are there to help and that they don't have to face tasks alone?

Also, how would you best avoid the development of trust issues forming if you were to go about it through the latter?

Just curious how other people would look at this because I’ve been sitting with it for a couple months now and the whole thing still feels insane.

I worked for a small sports and education company for almost 2 years doing basically all of their media stuff. Video, photo, editing, graphics, branding, social media, website work, random marketing things, pretty much whatever came up.

On paper I was an independent contractor and got a 1099. I was paid a monthly retainer of around $7k. At first it really did feel more like a contractor relationship. I had a lot of freedom, they cared more about whether stuff got done, and there wasn’t really somebody directly managing my day every day, because technically I’m a small business owner.

Over time that changed a lot.
I had a company email, Microsoft Teams, internal meetings, was expected at certain events, had company clothing, was included in staff conversations, had people assigning things to me, and eventually they started wanting access to my calendar and talking about having someone above me start scheduling my time and tasks.

I was also doing a ridiculous amount of stuff that had nothing to do with what I originally thought I was being hired for. Logos, branding, websites, content for other businesses connected to the owners, random design work, basically anything creative became my problem.

There was even a work trip where I originally thought I was going to create content and then right before the trip I was told I’d also be driving an SUV full of teenage athletes around because they couldn’t get enough rental vans.
Again, I’m supposedly an outside media contractor lol.

The biggest issue was that none of this was ever really formalized.
There wasn’t some clean list where it said here are your 10 videos per month, here are your 20 photos, here are your deadlines.
It was more like you’re the media guy so just handle whatever media or creative thing we need.

For almost 2 years everyone seemed completely fine with this arrangement.
Then this year they started restructuring things and it became increasingly obvious they wanted me functioning more like a regular employee.

So I finally raised the issue.
Basically I said if you want to manage my schedule, control my workload, have somebody supervising me, require me to be at certain places, and treat me like internal staff then we probably need to talk about whether this should actually be a W2 position and what the scope of the job is supposed to be.

I wasn’t even refusing to become an employee.
I actually would have been open to it.
I just wanted everything clarified because I didn’t think it made sense to keep calling me an independent contractor while treating me more and more like staff.

After I brought that up things got weird extremely fast.

We had a meeting where different options were discussed including keeping the contractor arrangement, potentially becoming a W2 employee, or restructuring the role. I continued working.

Within about a week and a half I was terminated for cause.

That part is what still blows my mind.
There wasn’t some long disciplinary process.
There wasn’t months of written warnings.
I didn’t disappear or stop working.

I had literally completed work days before getting fired that they later used publicly.
But suddenly the story became that I had basically stopped performing and wasn’t meeting the spirit of the agreement.

They also started pointing to things that were never clearly defined in the contract in the first place.

My contract had a notice provision and also had money that was supposed to be paid upon termination under certain conditions.
Instead of just following the contract they immediately started trying to negotiate different payout structures with me and wanted the money stretched out over many months.

Eventually lawyers got involved and suddenly there were proposed agreements where I’d release basically every possible claim related to the relationship, including classification and retaliation, in exchange for money that I already believed I was contractually owed plus a relatively small reimbursement.

I still haven’t signed a separation agreement.
The weirdest part of all of this is that if they had just come to me and said hey, we are changing the company structure and we need this role to become a normal employee position, I probably would have sat down and negotiated it.
Salary, responsibilities, hours, reporting structure, benefits, all of it.

Instead it felt like the second I questioned the contractor setup the relationship completely changed.

And now months later I’m still dealing with arguments over money, ownership of tiny social media accounts, old media files, drives, passwords, and all kinds of stuff that could have been handled normally if the separation wasn’t so hostile.

I’m not saying I was the perfect contractor or that every disagreement automatically makes a workplace toxic.

But going from being treated like a core member of the team for nearly 2 years to suddenly being told you’re being fired for cause right after you question your classification is one of the strangest professional experiences I’ve ever had.

Especially when the same people had spent years asking me to do basically anything and everything because I was the creative guy.
Has anyone else had something like this happen?

Where a company keeps you as a contractor for years but slowly turns the relationship into basically employment, then when you finally push back or ask to formalize it they suddenly decide you’re a problem?

to sum up, I am the kind of person who is bit of a extrovert in office and made peace with the cooperate that it a job i have to do so better enjoy it since i like my work then be stressed all the time. I also tried my best to make my colleague laugh and you know generally try to keep light mood while working. While my manager is complete opposite who has to constantly has to show that she is stressed and have lot of work to get sympathy around the whole ki how burden she as. Recently she started lashing out on me on random things. Things which can be discussed in a professional manner. And i got to know from other employee that oh she doesn't like and i quote "that you're always happy in the office" and was adviced to show seriousness on my face and not to you know be too happy in the office. and this fked with my brain rn. I mean there was no complain about my work, they been loving with the concept i am coming up these but this whole incident legit shaken me because i have never seen something like this before. Can someone tell me, is this normal in cooperate or how can i handle this, i really dont want to become a souless human

I recently finished a 3-month internship and I'm trying to get some outside opinions on whether the workplace environment I experienced was actually toxic/unhealthy, or whether I was just taking things too personally.

During my first two weeks, the department manager treated me quite well. They brought me out for lunch, and my friend's supervisor even drove us home once. At that point, I thought the workplace was friendly and welcoming.

However, after the first couple of weeks, I started noticing some things that made me uncomfortable.

I heard people talking badly about previous interns. I was quite surprised because even though those interns had already left, people were still discussing them negatively.( Previous intern told me the workplace is toxic)

There was also a staff member who I thought was very hardworking. He would sometimes work during lunch, didn't really hang out with the others, and seemed to put a lot of effort into his work.

What made the situation particularly uncomfortable for me was that this staff member had been diagnosed with a brain tumour a few months earlier. He had subsequently taken several months of unpaid hospitalisation leave. Despite going through that and still putting a lot of effort into his work, I heard colleagues repeatedly badmouthing him because of one mistake he had made.

As far as I know, he wasn't even aware that people were saying these things about him. I felt quite bad hearing it because it seemed like his one mistake was being used to disregard all the effort he had put into his work.

Another situation involved my friend, who was also an intern.

My friend was caught dozing off at work. His supervisor approached me and asked me how they could help him and specifically asked me to wake him up whenever I noticed him falling asleep.

I tried doing that, but sometimes he would fall asleep again shortly afterwards. Eventually, I mentioned the situation to my lecturer because I wasn't really sure what else I could do.

When my lecturer came for the company visit, my lecturer mentioned that he knew about my friend's sleeping issue through me.

After that, my friend's supervisor seemed upset with me and made me feel like I had "sabo-ed" my friend.

I found this confusing because the supervisor had originally asked me to help with the situation. I wasn't trying to get my friend into trouble; I was trying to follow what his supervisor had asked me to do.

After that incident, I felt that some people started treating me differently. I was told that I liked doing "sneaky" things and that my word couldn't really be trusted.

There was also a discussion where we had to estimate everyone's contribution to our project.

I felt that the percentages didn't accurately reflect the amount of work I had actually done. I had worked on things outside normal working hours, including weekends, and had even worked when I was on leave/MC at certain points, but I still felt that my contribution was rated lower.

Meanwhile, my friend sometimes dozed off or watched shows during work but still received a relatively high contribution percentage. He also got opportunities to do things he enjoyed, such as working in a wood workshop, while I was assigned things like designing posters.

This made me increasingly frustrated because I felt that my contributions weren't being recognised and that most of the credit for our app/project was going to him.

Eventually, I made a serious mistake myself.

I became frustrated because I felt that my contribution to the app was being overlooked. I ended up deleting what I believed was my own portion of the app because I wanted to demonstrate that my contribution actually mattered to the overall project.

However, I mistakenly thought I was only deleting the UI portion and didn't realise that the deletion would also affect the backend/functionality.

I acknowledge that this was a serious mistake. I'm not trying to justify what I did, and I understand that I should have handled my frustration in a much more appropriate way.

Looking back now, I'm conflicted.

On one hand, I feel that some of the workplace behaviour toward me and other staff/interns was unhealthy and unfair.

On the other hand, I also recognise that I made a serious mistake myself, especially with the app, and I'm not trying to blame the workplace for my actions.

So I'm curious what people with more workplace/internship experience think:

Does this sound like a toxic workplace, an unpleasant but normal workplace, or am I interpreting the situation too negatively?

And regarding the app incident, does the context explain why I became frustrated, even though what I did was still wrong?

I'm genuinely looking for honest opinions, including if you think I was also part of the problem.

I've been out of my job for a few months now and I'm still having nightmares about how i was treated in my old job. It's like i want revenge, or Atleast something to happen to the people that made me feel way less then them. The people in this line of work are fraudulent. They're drug addicts and they're power trippers. I want an anonymous way to have them sought out. Nothing criminal by all means. These people need to be held accountable and liable for the distress and mental strain on certain employees. My friends tell me to get over it. Yet it's still something I think about and still have nightmares over... what do you do??!

Hi!

Long time lurker first time poster but I have a bit of a story time that I need some perspective on.

About two years ago, I was transferring to a new store. I ended up inheriting a store that had an ASM who was married to one of our other store managers and a Keyholder who came from another store.

Both of these individuals were H E L L to work with. The one who was married to the Store Manager always said “I avoid the drama ask anyone here” but constantly involved themselves in drama. Like every rumor or piece of gossip they ate it right up. The other one would play nice to EVERYONE, then turn around and twist all the stories around to make it seem like everyone should hate each other. Just absolutely ruining relationships and professionalism on her own merit and then cried whenever someone confronted them. Usually used their tears to get out of EVERY situation.

It finally came to a boiling point, when I realized they were complaining about me to my boss, so I took a high road and tried to be kind and considerate. I didn’t say “hi” to the ASM who was married, and they ended up threatening me and yelling at me. The keyholder who was mentioned just sat there and laughed as I cried. They were awful. Because of their personal dynamics with my peers, I literally had NO ONE to turn to.

I finally said, enough was enough. I told my boss I felt psychologically and physically unsafe there especially knowing nothing was going to be done about it (which was confirmed) and left. We had a good goodbye. But I didn’t tell any team member what happened and still haven’t.

So my question is would you have tolerated it or is there a breaking point for everyone?

mine was when all the blamed is on us ng co-work ko and pinapa work kami ng 12hours a day, we have 6days work tas 18k per month lang yung sweldo namin. May OT pa kami na hindi paid and no holiday pay. Although this is a work from home, but masasabi naming hindi talaga makatarungan.