Originally posted this in the wrong sub, so I decided to repost it here.
Apologies if you've already seen this one.
Up until a few months ago I worked for one of the large soda/cola companies. I won't name which one, but trust me you've had a least one of their products in your lifetime. I started off in the warehouse as an order selector (the pay was decent at the time), and after 3 years I moved to an auditor position at the trucking gate. Now the plant wasn't too bad, and I ended up making an entire host of friends I still speak with to this day. The major problem with the company was the attitude of anyone not on an hourly wage, i.e., the executive branch.
To give you an example, when nearly my entire state froze over last January, management originally planned to use our PTO (Paid Time Off) to pay for work days missed due to the hazardous road conditions. (For those of you in the north, the Big Freeze completely shut down any and all services over the course of a week, including transportation, i.e. Metro buses and light rail trains). Of course, once this got back to the workers, there was an entire blowup that forced a “town hall meeting” with words like “strike” and “walkout” thrown around, and management quickly changed course. This is just one of many, many stories I could tell here.
As for my personal story, my move was a gift and a bane simultaneously. When the pandemic began, many of us increasingly became hesitant to come to work. We were labeled “essential workers” during the initial stay-at-home order, yet had no protections from COVID. No masks, no sanitizers, no protocols. A number of people left/let themselves be terminated once unemployment benefits were severely increased. Eventually the company gave us a “Pay Incentive” of about 20% to keep us there. The pay incentive was later made permanent in an attempt to replenish the work pool. Unfortunately, I didn't receive that pay raise.
A little before this was made official, I was moved without my consent to basically a “general labor” job (a jack-of-all-trades) by a former shift supervisor (we weren't “friends” basically). When I questioned HR about this, I was told that the pay incentive was for the order selector position, which I no longer did. At that moment I applied to move out of the warehouse immediately, seeing as people who were just starting the job (some of whom I was currently training at the time) were making well more than myself, who had been there for over 3 years. A slap in the face to say the least.
I started my position at the gate, auditing our delivery trucks leaving returning from their routes (counting product basically), and inspecting the loads common carriers (rig drivers) would pick up. Easy job despite the heavy footwork, and I was working in an office with friends who had also left the warehouse for something better. The biggest problem was being understaffed, as I worked 10 hr. days, 6 days a week since there was no one else to fully cover the trucks departure and return to the facility. Someone simply had to be at the gate, and thus that someone was me. Management, wondering why I was accumulating so much overtime, couldn't do much to stop me seeing as they had no plans to hire anyone to take some of the load off due to “budgetary restraints”.
Stepping into the Way-Back Machine, 2 years earlier the company decided to go the more health conscious route (i.e. our insurance costs had risen), and switched out the usual basic vending machines in the break room. Installed now were 3 fridges of healthy off brand alternatives (cheap meal packs you would see at Wal-Mart next to the costlier name brand items.) Also installed were 2 kiosks for payment. You grab whatever food you want, scan it on the screen, and pay. The kiosk gave no change back (if your meal was $4 and you paid with a $5 bill, you just lost a dollar) so nearly all of us paid by card. I bought from the kiosk once per day with my card for lunch, to the point I could do the process blindfolded. Also also, there were cameras attached to the kiosks, just in case someone (there's always one) decides to try a quick dine and dash without paying. Now here comes the fun part.
Typical Saturday shift. I come into work, check my trucks, start working on my end of day reports, and go to lunch. Now all of us have that one annoying coworker who wants to tell you their life story. And of course, he's in the break room for lunch and wants to dictate his latest sob story. I'm normally a nice guy and try not to be rude, so while somewhat listening to the same complaints he's already spilled to me before, I rush to just grab my food, pay with my card, clock out for lunch, and head back to my area. Basically, I was hurrying to get the hell away from him.
A month later my current supervisor (good guy who he takes care of his workers) pulls me outside. I was flagged at the machine for “non-payment” on the day described above, meaning the company thought I had stolen the food. You see, when you used a credit/debit card at the kiosk, it asks if you'll accept the .10 surcharge for using said card. Apparently I had missed that prompt to accept it, thus management declaring it as “theft”. I ended up having to print out my bank statement for that particular day to show the payment had gone through, and then write a statement saying this was just a misunderstanding, and would allow the entire charge to be taken out of my next check (it was only about $3.50 total). And so, I thought that would be the end of it. No one spoke to me any further about the situation, including the person who ended up being the one to review the camera footage. More on that in a minute.
Another month later, my supervisor pulls me into his office and lets me know management is terminating me. His hands were tied, seeing as it was a him or me decision, and I was being let go for a “health and safety violation”. In the years prior, the only mark on my record was a write-up for attendance for calling off work due to a mental health issue (clinical depression). And they had chosen to escalate this to firing me over .10. One single dime.
After turning in my badge and clearing my laptop of any work files, I left and began the process of finding another job while also filing a report with the Ethics Committee. My supervisor and former coworker convinced me to fight back for my job (they needed me since I was the only one willing to work the long hours, and do all of the reports to be sent off), but after trying to get a hold of HR for 2 weeks and getting no response, I gave up and resumed my search for employment. Turns out this event was a blessing in disguise.
See, the guy who reviewed the camera footage was the facility supervisor, let's call him Tom. Tom and I, while being professional, never got along. He viewed me as just another nameless worker drone, and I viewed him as corporate snake with a Chesire smile. Tom was the guy my supervisor directly reported to, hence the him-or-me decision. Tom passed me in the hallways almost every single day, even while all of this was happening, and never did more than give off his usual “Hello OP. Don't work too hard out there.” Tom had the final call on these matter. Tom also, it turns out, was over the yearly budget.
So remember when I said a number of people had left ? Well, due to being so shorthanded, everyone from the warehouse to distribution to the drivers to the production teams were forced to work overtime in an attempt to catch up to missed/delayed orders. 6 days a week, no set end time, you leave when work is finished, which ended up causing another mass exodus despite pay increases. Being short staffed, they couldn't simple move someone into my position, causing the team leads to do work they weren't trained for. Oh, and the team leads were salary, so no overtime for them. This was 3 months ago now.
I start work at a new company in a few weeks in shipping and receiving. My old coworkers recently told me Tom was forced to hire 3 new people to replace me, despite all the previous blustering about “budgetary concerns”, and none of them are going to last til the end of the year. Reason ? It's currently summer time down here in the south, with the daily temperature hitting 100* on average, and when your job is to audit trucks, you spend a lot of time outside in the heat. None of them have learned the reporting software, and spend most of their time in the office on their phones.
So, instead of making a rational decision on a seasoned worker who liked his job and willingly did the dirty work, Tom had to hire 3 new guys, at $15 an hour, to fill in for one guy, all over a .10 surcharge.
Oh, and I no longer drink dark soda/cola anymore.
TL;DR: Manager fired me over .10, is finding out it would have been cheaper to keep me.