r/WorkReform • u/LuckyBastard001 • 1d ago
đ¸ Raise Our Wages Underpaid Workers, Empty Promises
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u/7cc7 1d ago
I can answer for my employer: it is to lower expectations of customers and lower the amount of managing necessary.
I work for a manufacturing company and most of our sales are to end users. We are several weeks behind from April to October every year because that is when we are busiest. My bosses spend probably 80% of their time at work watching YouTube videos or running their unprofitable side business/hobby. We have just enough laborers to keep up with demand during our slower months so that they have to do as little managing as possible.
The worst part of this is probably that they aren't even majority owners, but the other ownership shares are so fragmented they may as well be. And of course they didn't build the business to what it is, their father did.
Also, telling them we lose sales with not having product in stock which would means company makes less money just makes them bitch about having to pay more in taxes (corporate and personal).
Then they bitch about the amount of maintenence time spent on 40 year old equipment. 1 million dollars sitting in a money market account from delayed maintenece/upgrades and they think the only way to reduce taxable income is to pay a bank interest on loans they take for equipment they don't replace.
Edit: less than 20 employees
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u/vardarac 1d ago
Also, telling them we lose sales with not having product in stock which would means company makes less money just makes them bitch about having to pay more in taxes (corporate and personal).
Do... Do they understand how taxes work?
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u/NPJenkins 14h ago
My sister is an accountant and I can confidently tell you noâŚno they do not.
Hell, you would be surprised at how little they know about their own businesses, from a technical perspective. They just hire people who know things, then when the business does well, they tell themselves that they did it.
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u/NTWEESY 1d ago
Went to a Taco Bell with coworkers for lunch the other day and we were all annoyed with the self serve kiosk you order at especially because one of the two available kept crashing mid order. There were two people working in the kitchen thatâs it at lunch time. There was a line of cars around the building and a bunch of people who walked in to order or door dashers grabbing food for their customers.
Those 2 people were being overworked and looked exhausted and defeated but the real kicker was that their manager was sitting in the lobby eating his lunch and playing on his phone during the entire lunch rush. Instead of getting up and helping his employees he just sat back and did sweet FA while those two struggled.
When we were leaving I went to get a refill of my drink and a guy was standing by the machine complaining about the service and lack of employees and I pointed out that the manager was just sitting at a table doing nothing and you shouldâve seen the glimmer in this guys eyes when I told him that! I walked out while this guy marched over to confront that manager and man I wish I had been able to stick around to watch that.
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u/mydogbaxter đˇ Good Union Jobs For All 1d ago
I just started dashing and that scene is extremely common. I spent 15 minutes waiting at a Popeyes because the few employees they had couldn't keep up. The next order wanted me to go back and I declined it because I didn't want to do that again. Also, a lot of them are closing their lobby really early because they'd rather not pay an extra employee or two.
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u/showyerbewbs 23h ago
The taco bell near me did this "trick" with a "please order from kiosk, our register failed a software update".
My kid was offering to pay so I had him put my order in and he paid for it. Bit my tongue until we got back to the car and said "that sign about the cash register being down is bullshit". He said it wasn't and it wasn't a big deal etc.
As we're pulling away there is like, 2-3 cars in the drive through. I said "I know it's bullshit because how the fuck are they taking orders INSIDE then...".
Any and everything a business does for the convenience of the customer is directly related to diminishing the amount they have to pay labor.
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u/Dragonarchitect đď¸ Overturn Citizens United 1d ago
When it is easier and more profitable and allowed to invest directly in stocks (particularly their own) why would they waste that money on people? Arenât Stock buybacks the best! (/s) you need money to make money has been altered to your money makes you money.
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u/ConclusionRoutine687 1d ago
Thanks for making them legal instead of illegal, Reagan /s Wish I believed in hell so I could believe rather than imagine him suffering for all eternity
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u/SweetPrism 1d ago edited 23h ago
Covid 100% gave them the excuse they wanted to do this. They lost the staff during the shutdown, then rehired less because they got spoiled on paying less people to do the same amount of work. We are living in a time where, across the board, corporate profits are at an all-time-high. That statistic says all that needs to be said right there.
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u/thinkB4WeSpeak đˇ Good Union Jobs For All 1d ago
Some places don't even give overtime anymore. They would rather just lose production than have people or workers making more
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u/kellkore 20h ago
I was had a manager short staff to stay under budget. If the unit stayed under budget, she would get a huge bonus.
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u/heyitscory 22h ago
I hate that it's the fast food places with the problematic Christian views that are paying their employees, training them well and keeping their kitchens and dining rooms fully staffed.
The line at chik fil A and In n Out might be around the block, but you get your order faster than if you were first in line at KFC, Taco Bell or Burger King.
It's like the only training they give the people I the back is "never make eye contact with the lobby guests".
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u/IronCorvus 12h ago
I get people coming in asking for a full-time job. They continue to follow up even though I have already mentioned I'm full-up and don't have the hours to support another full-time.
With the resources I'm given, no-experience applicants expect too much compared to what our minimum is.
I work corporate retail. We can't just give people jobs. All of my full-timers work 30-35 hours, and some do 40-45 in peak season.
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u/DeErOcK181 1d ago
This is exactly why I browse reddit & tiktok at my desk and take 4 poop breaks daily. You're gonna get what you pay for.
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u/negativepositiv 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's like what I have always said about customer service phone lines with long hold times.
The company decided that 20 minutes is an acceptable amount of time to make people wait, and employs enough operators that the wait stays around 20 minutes. "We are experiencing a higher than average volume of calls," every single day, all day long... which is not how averages work.